102 MEMOIE OF MAGENDIE. 



gendie would throw their frankness into ludicrous perplexity, and finish by 

 assuring them that all they needed was to be cured of their tendency to credulity. 



To the ardor of young practitioners vaunting the success of their prescrip- 

 tions he opposed his own experience, saying to them with pleasant irony : " It 

 is plainly to be seen that you have never tried the plan of doing nothing." If 

 the extreme simplicity of this mode of treatment elicited not unreasonable ob- 

 jections, " Be assured," he would add, " that, for the most part, when disturb- 

 ance manifests itself, we cannot discover the causes ; we can, at most, only 

 verify the effects. Our usefulness, in presence of the efforts of nature, which, 

 in general, tends to the normal condition, consists in not interrupting them ; it 

 is only now and then that we can aspire to be sufficiently skilful to aid them." 



On a certain occasion, when quitting a young person whose condition pre- 

 sented alarming symptoms, he said : *' Let him do just what he pleases; that is 

 all I prescribe." Usually sparing of his time and visits, in behalf of ihis child 

 he lavishes both, but adds nothing to his medication. On the evening of the 

 third day, all at once his brow clears up, and, taking the invalid by the ear, he 

 exclaims : " Little rogue, you have not allowed me a moment's rest ; go now 

 and walk about." The delighted father asks: "What, then, was the matter 

 with the child?" "What was the matter? upon my word I don't know; 

 neither I, nor the whole faculty, if they were sincere, could tell you ; what is 

 certain is, that everything has returned to its normal state." And with this he 

 disappeared. 



The greater portion of the medical career of M. Magendie was devoted to the 

 unfortunate ; he preferred the hospital to other practice. Twenty years of ser- 

 vice as physician in the wards showed us this rigid and wayward man, gentle 

 and patient on approaching the bedside of the indigent ; the earnest thinker, 

 the inflexible censor listening to and consoling the poor women of the Salpe- 

 triere ; receiving with emotion the humble testimonial which they offered him ; 

 and not quitting that establishment for the Hotel-Dieu, in 1830, without stipu- 

 lating for himself the right of continuing to extend to the former his disinterested 

 benefactions. 



A chair of medicine having become vacant at the College of France, the 

 minister, desirous of reconciling public opinion with the tendencies of the gov- 

 ernment, thought proper to require some concessions from the rigid candidate 

 whom that opinion indicated. Conducted by a friend to M. Frayssinous, and 

 surprised at having allowed himself to be thus entrapped, the strange candidate 

 maintained so stately and formal a reserve, that the eloquent minister — a great 

 master in point of conferences — saw this one come to an end without having 

 produced any relaxation of the jealous rigidity of his interlocutor. On retiring, 

 our humorist shook his head and remarked : He is not yet strong enough for vie. 

 M. Eecamier received the nomination. 



Three years later, in 1830, M. Magendie was put in possession of the chair. 

 It was then that he gave free course to his ardor for experimental art, and it is 

 surprising to what an extent he lavished his experiments. Yet for this who 

 can justly blame him 1 It was from these extemporized experiments that often 

 sprung the boldest and most happy results. He had the gift of seizing phe- 

 nomena in passing, and, as it were, on the wing. Endowed with keen curiosity, 

 prompt and impulsive by nature, improvisation was of the essence of his genius. 



The success of haphazard experiments, however, is not art. Art demands, 

 first of all, combination, reflection. It is not the experiment which investigates : 

 it is the mind which investigates through the experiment ; it is the mind which 

 discovers, which invents the means by which the discovery is made. Bufifon 

 has said with a profound sense : " The best crucible is the understanding." 



The lessons of M. Magendie at the College of France have been collected in 

 two separate works : one on the Nervous System ; the other on the Physical 

 Phenomena of Life. The latter presents the professor under a new aspect. 



