Claude Bernard, Physiologist by J. M. D. OlmstedReview by: M. F. Ashley-MontaguIsis, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Nov., 1938), pp. 440-441Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/225499 .

Accessed: 09/05/2014 16:33

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The University of Chicago Press and The History of Science Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Isis.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.218 on Fri, 9 May 2014 16:33:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

440 ISIS, XXIX, 2

carriere d'ingenieur militaire a la Martinique oiL il passa neuf ans. L'autre c'est le grand historien des math6matiques, MONTUCLA (I7Z5-99) auquel j'ai consacr6 une notice assez detaillee dans Osinis (I, 5I9-67, I2 fig., 1936). MONTUCLA fut astronome du Roy en Guyane (1764-65), et fut mele i la terrible aventure de colonisation du Kourou. II n'en a gu6re parle, mais j'imagine que les survivants furent avis6s de se tenir cois. A propos de la Guyane, peut-etre il aurait fallu dire quelques mots aussi des royalistes qui y furent deportes par le Directoire (Sept. 4, 1797).

Les survivants de cette seconde aventure, aussi cruelle que la premiere, n'eurent pas la bouche cousue. Plusieurs ecrivirent des livres (e les cite a la p. 524 de mon memoire sur MoNTucIA), et il est fort possible que ces livres contiennent des indications int6ressantes sur leur pays d'exil et de torture.

Le travail de M. LACROIX est de tout premier ordre, car il est largement fonde sur des documents d'archives, surtout les riches archives de l'Academie, qu'il a su habilement exploiter. Cela lui a permis de corriger plusieurs erreurs publies dans les dictionnaires de biographie et souvent copi&es (elles le seront encore, helas 1).

Mes seuls regrets, c'est que les indications bibliographiques ne soient pas plus nombreuses et plus pr&cises, et que l'index des personnes n'ait pas &6 compl&t6 par un index des sujets. Celui-ci aurait fait ressortir la grande richesse de cet ouvrage et en aurait facilit6 l'utilisation. Par exemple nous apprenons dans le tome IV (p. 41) que JOSEPH-HENRI

HUBERT avait reconnu a la Reunion la chaleur de fecondation de l'arum ind6pendamment de LAMARCK, (p. I I5) que MICHE SARRASIN avait. etudie avant 1730 les irables a sucre, (p. iz6) que le fameux Cedre du Liban du Jardin des Plantes fut rapporte par BERNARD DE JuSSIEU de Londres en I727 (non pas du Liban dans son chapeau !), (p. I78) qu'ADRIEN DE JuSsIEU ecrivit une histoire de la taxonomie v6gitale en I848, (p. I IH7) que le pere jesuite ANToINE GAUBIL (I689-I759) avait

signal6 l'existence d'un Age de la pierre en Chine, (p. I23) qu'ANToINE DE JUSSIEU fut ds 723 un pr6curseur en prehistoire. Comment peut-on se rappeler ces faits et les retrouver ais6ment sans index? Un index des lieux eut ete aussi fort utile, car il est souvent question, par exemple, de la Guyane, en dehors des chapitres qui lui sont consacr6s.

L'ouvrage contient une admirable collection de portraits et de fac- simil6s d'autographes, tous proprement libe.1hs, et son impression fait honneur k l'editeur, GAUTHIER-VILLARS, dont l'eloge n'est plus a faire.

GEORGE SARTON.

J. M. D. Olmsted.-Claude Bernard, Physiologist. XVI+272 Pp. New York: HARPER & Brothers, I938, ($ 4.00).

MICHAEL FOSTER'S Claude Bernard (London, I899) has for many

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.218 on Fri, 9 May 2014 16:33:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

REVIEWS 441

years been out of print and hard to come by. Professor OLMSTED'S

authoritative biography, which appears exactly fifty years after BERNARD's

death, therefore supplies a long-felt want. It may at once be said that the present work constitutes the most complete and most reliable account of BERNARD (I813-I878) and his works that has so far appeared. While BERNARD'S life and work both lend themselves to dramatic treatment, Professor OLMSTED has avoided all temptation to pander to the at present fashionable taste in scientific biography, and gives us a formal, almost a severe, account of the man and his works. The author set out to write an academic biography, and an academic biography he has achieved; as such it is a most excellent piece of work, and may be warmly and unreservedly recommended.

Professor OLMSTED has succeeded in bringing much new material to light, the greater part of which he has himself examined and copied. The previously untapped resources of the RAFFALOVICH correspondence are here for the first time used to throw an interesting light upon BERNARD'S later years; many other fresh sources of information have also been utilised in adding new facts to our knowledge of the m.an. Yet somehow the personality of BERNARD fails to emerge and to assume some definite form. That BERNARD was a remarkable personality there is abundant evidence to show, yet neither the anecdotes, the personal recollections of his pupils, the stories, the letters, nor the work have ever been put together in such a way as to create a living picture of the man as he was. In this respect PASTEUR, BmRNARD's contemporary and friend, has been better served even though, as Professor OLMSTED points out, there is to-day no more reason than there ever was to reverse the positions which they respectively occupied in the scientific esteem of their contemporaries.

The author's account of BERNARD's physiological experiments, dis- coveries, and writings is the best that we have so far been given, but if a criticism may be ventured, it suffers somewhat from the fact that BERNARD'S work has not been considered against a broad enough back- ground of contemporary scientific endeavour and thought; but this is a quibble, for Professor OLMSTED does not pretend to be more than the recorder of BERNARD'S life and work.

There is a foreword by ALExis CARREL who is careful to note that BERNARD's father was a religious man; he does not, however, make any reference to the fact that BERNARD himself was an agnostic. There are ten illustrations, a list of references, and an index.

New York University. M. F. ASHLEY-MONTAGU.

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.218 on Fri, 9 May 2014 16:33:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions