PORTIER (Paul) - Lot 227

Lot 227
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PORTIER (Paul) - Lot 227
PORTIER (Paul) Bar-sur-Seine, 1866 - Paris, 1962. French physiologist and biologist, co-discoverer, with Charles Richet, of the phenomenon of anaphylaxis. Autograph letter signed "P. Portier", addressed to "Mon cher Franck". Bar-sur-Seine, September 6, 1945. 4 pages in-8, letterhead illustrated with a view of Chillon. A beautiful, long letter, intimate and meditative in tone, written just after the end of the Second World War, when Franck had entered his eightieth year. In it, Portier sensitively expresses his nostalgia for the Alpine landscapes and his regret at not being able to stay there again, evoking with lucidity tinged with humor the proximity of death: "I would so much like to see them again before I die [...] I mustn't waste any time, as I am now in my 80th year...". The letter continues with personal considerations, including concern for a friend about whom he has no news, before turning to his current scientific work. He details the progress of his work on La biologie des lépidoptères, already two-thirds or even three-quarters completed, and which he envisages as a substantial 600-700-page sum, richly illustrated. He mentions Lechevalier's support for the composition of the work and envisages recourse to a grant from the Académie des Sciences for the production of color plates. The scientist also confides his doubts and his working conditions, evoking with a striking formula the "bomb of Damocles" hanging over him, a metaphor for the uncertainties of the time. He concludes with his reluctance to return to Paris, torn between the need to consult bibliographical sources there and the calm conducive to work that he found in Bar-sur-Seine. An interesting account of the end of the life of a great scientist, combining personal reflections, intellectual concerns and the evocation of a major publishing project.
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