THE LIFE AND WORKS OF BROWN-SEQUARD. 685 



fessor in the faculty of medicine, who has recently been snatched from 

 us ; Rosenthal, of Vienna, Westphal, of Berlin, Czermak, and others 

 whose names I no longer remember. The vivacity and personal force 

 of Brown-Sequard, together with the simplicity, the innocent sincerity, 

 and the generosity of his character were particularly attractive to 

 young men; but he did not have the same influence upon men of age 

 and authority, who during that period of social constraint, looked upon 

 all innovations with a suspicion fortunately unknown to the present 

 generation. 



The method of Brown-Sequard also excited some distrust among those 

 scientists who demand a didactic rigor for all demonstrations. He pro- 

 ceeded rather by intuitions, based upon the execution of incomplete 

 experiments, which appeared still more unsatisfactory because of the 

 extreme complexity of physiological problems. Hence arose many dif- 

 ficulties and doubts, which prevented for a long time the reputation of 

 our future colleague from obtaining that extent and solid foundation 

 which it has since acquired. 



At this time he was engaged in researches upon the suprarenal cap- 

 sules and particularly upon the spinal cord which contradicted the 

 accepted views. These gave him a certain notoriety among neurolo- 

 gists. I will again refer to them later. 



Nevertheless, in 1850, the Academy of Sciences awarded him a prize. 

 The fees of the pupils in his laboratory provided him with some 

 resources, and the assistance of Rayer gave him some patients. As 

 his scientific reputation began to be reestablished, the nature of his 

 work gave him authority as a practitioner in the domain of nervous 

 diseases, that field so pregnant with doubts and with desperate hopes. 

 His practice began to assure him the advantages of a professional 

 career. It is well known that men esteem but little those scientific 

 discoveries that can not be turned to profit. 



The researches of our colleague upon epilepsy, its etiology and treat- 

 ment, were especially celebrated. Always active, and always scatter- 

 ing his forces, he took up the most diverse projects. He went to Lon- 

 don, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin to exhibit his discoveries. His 

 authority was at this period greater, perhaps, in England than in 

 Erance; he was therefore divided between the two countries. 



In 1888 he undertook at Paris the publication of the Journal de 

 Physiologie de Vhomme et des animaux, filled with his own contributions 

 during eight years. 



In the month of May, in the same year, he was called to the Royal 

 College of Surgeons of England, and delivered there six lectures in 

 which he summarized his work on the nervous centers and gave his 

 ideas as to the relations between the experimental researches and the 

 therapeutics of the nervous system. These lectures were published in 

 18C0 in Philadelphia; that is to say, in the third of the intellectual 

 centers between which Brown-Sequard continually vibrated. 



