680 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF BROWN-SEQUARD. 



resources necessary for obtaining an education. It should not be sup- 

 posed that these conditions are absolutely unfavorable; on the con- 

 trary, by teaching one is forced to learn more thoroughly what is 

 taught; some author, whose name I do not remember, has said that in 

 order to teach it is necessary to know a subject twice over. A teacher 

 must certainly apply himself to think out and assimilate his subject in 

 a way not often accomplished by the young student who pays scanty 

 attention to the lesson, listening with a distracted mind and perhaps 

 never thinking of it again. 



It was by contact with these Parisian masters that there came to 

 Brown- Sequard the revelation of his true vocation, which had hitherto 

 remained obscure. While reproducing the experiments of others in 

 the laboratory of Martin Magron, he conceived the idea of experiment- 

 ing on his own account; his passion for physiology burst forth and 

 assisted to sustain him in the midst of painful trials while he was enter- 

 ing upon a life of difficulties. He was, in fact, soon subjected to both 

 personal and family troubles. 



A dissecting wound, an accident still too frequent among students, 

 made him ill for long months. Scarcely had he recovered when he lost 

 his mother, his devoted companion and support. Browu-Sequard had 

 a peculiarly sensitive and affectionate nature, which often made him 

 unhappy during the course of his life. Prostrated by this unexpected 

 stroke, carried away by an irresistible influence, and semidelirious, he 

 quitted Paris and embarked for his native land. Hardly arrived there, 

 more reduced in material resources than ever, and finding it impossible 

 to renew them in so restricted a sphere, he obtained the aid of a friend 

 to return to Paris. 



Friends were never wanting to Brown-Sequard. Like all loving 

 natures he always received keen and affectionate sympathy. 



He then returned to Paris, poorer than ever, to finish his medical 

 studies, working in a poor chamber and nourished sometimes on only 

 dry bread and water; without fire in the dead of winter, living helter- 

 skelter with guinea pigs and rabbits, the subjects of his experiments, 

 who were henceforth to be his companions up to his very last moments, 

 for half a century. 



He graduated in medicine in 1810, publishing in his thesis a prelim- 

 inary sketch of his researches on the nervous system. 



It should not, however, be supposed that Brown was always unhappy; 

 as is usual in youth he lived upon imagination and hope, exalted by his 

 discoveries. He often in after life referred to these first years with 

 affectionate remembrance. 



This young man, so industrious and zealous, could not long fail to 

 receive aid from those around him — aid from the young scientists and 

 artists of his own age, aid also from scientists who had already become 

 famous. If we should accuse some of the latter of being selfish and 

 jealous it would be an accusation which, as all this company knows, it 



