THE LIFE AND WORKS OF BROWN-SEQUARD. 689 



who gave this island to Agassiz, has just authorized him to expend upon 

 it the whole of a capital of $50,000. Agassiz has asked me the direct 

 question : " What will you take per year to carry on the chair of experi- 

 mental physiology that I propose to found ? Include in this all your 

 expenses, for I wish you to give up the practice of medicine." This was 

 even beyond the dreams of Brown-Sequard, and to crown it he adds: 

 "Agassiz is soon going to have thousands of rabbits, guinea pigs, 

 birds, pigs, cats, dogs, and living cold-blooded animals, all of which 

 he will put at the disposal of experimenters. Why am I not again 30 

 years old!" 



But this ideal dream of the physiologist was not to be realized. 

 Agassiz fell sick, and the propositions that he had made to Brown came 

 to nothing. Institutions that depend on the good will of a single per- 

 son are subject to the same vicissitudes as his life or his mental condi- 

 tion. Those only rest on a solid foundation that have the support of 

 the State, or, at least, that of a great organization controlling unin- 

 cumbered capital. We have been informed by several European scien- 

 tists who have settled in America that the regular salaries are small 

 when we take into account the increased cost of living, and the situa- 

 tions are not always permanent, as in old Europe. If donors are easily 

 found to encourage a scientific project, continual support is more rare 

 and often dependent upon the good will of someone, or upon the legis- 

 lative assemblies, which regulate and change it every year. 



In the month of July, 1873, Brown-Sequard was again in Europe, at 

 Brighton, sick, exhausted both by work and by domestic troubles. "I 

 am in the depths of despair; life is odious to me. It is possible that I 

 will never return to America." In October, however, he was again in 

 New York, always a prey to the most sinister foreboding. "I have a 

 constant headache. I think that I am fatally affected." Annoyances 

 of all kinds and money embarrassments increased; his patients did not 

 pay him, and he adds: "They owe me nearly $4,700; I would be bank- 

 rupt if an illness should keep me for a month without making any- 

 thing." His impressionable nature was still more disturbed by his 

 domestic troubles than by his pecuniary embarrassments. "Despair 

 and uncertainty; these are my lot. What would I not give to have you 

 with me. I have so much need of your sympathy and assistance. I 

 can rely no longer on my own health. I fear that I may die suddenly, 

 or fall sick, good for nothing — I am afraid I have a serious cerebral 

 affection. If you have more confidence than I in my health, come to 

 me as soon as possible. As soon as I have no longer any depressing 

 influence near me everything becomes easy. My wife is always very 

 sick ; as for myself, I am exhausted." But his generous feelings awaken 

 at the touch of science. "The fact is decisive," he answers a corre- 

 spondent, who had written him concerning an observation, "it belongs 

 to you; pull the string and you will then pass to another." 



In 1874 he lost his second wife, whose conduct had been a source of 

 sm 98 44 



