PORTIER (Paul) - Lot 233

Lot 233
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PORTIER (Paul) - Lot 233
PORTIER (Paul) Bar-sur-Seine, 1866 - Paris, 1962. French zoologist and marine biologist, collaborator with Charles Richet in the discovery of anaphylaxis. Autograph letter signed "P. Portier", addressed to "Mon cher Maurice" [Maurice Emmanuel]. [Paris], October 24 [1907]. 3 pages ¼ in-8, on letterhead of the Faculté des Sciences - Laboratoire de physiologie expérimentale. Charming and lively letter mixing personal confidences, friendly considerations and humorous traits, addressed to composer Maurice Emmanuel. Apologizing for his silence, Portier solicitously inquires about his correspondent's health, mentioning in particular his digestive problems with affectionate familiarity. The letter goes on to comment on Emmanuel's departure from Sainte-Clotilde, the details of which he is unaware of and would like to see clarified, before going on to talk about his own travels and stays, notably in Bar-sur-Seine and in the mountains. He makes some amusing observations, contrasting sea and mountains in the effects of his "cure", and humorously rectifying a geographical confusion: "Bar is in Burgundy, not Champagne". The whole is punctuated by a particularly tasty postscript in which Portier, busy correcting baccalauréat papers, ironizes about the task ("What a chore!") and mentions the presence in the laboratory of a grandson of César Franck, whose musical gifts he mischievously assumes may have developed "at the expense of other faculties". An engaging document, revealing the scholar's warm, spiritual personality, as well as his close ties with the musical and intellectual milieu of his time.
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