ROSTAND Jean (1894-1977) biologiste.

L.A.S. "Jean Rostand", Ville d'Avray January 5, 1960, and autograph MANUSCRIT, [1959]; 1 and 2 pages in-4 in blue ink. One page handwritten. The manuscript, with erasures and corrections, paginated 47 and 48, is extracted from his speech of reception to the French Academy (pronounced on November 12, 1959); Jean Rostand pays tribute to his predecessor Édourd HERRIOT. "Shall I evoke here the last moments of Edouard Herriot, which, according to certain testimonies, were not in harmony with his whole life of secularism and agnosticism? One knows, moreover, what passion was put into commenting on the alleged contradiction between the words of the standing man and the murmurs of the lying man. No one is unaware of my own philosophical tendencies; they impose on me all the more reserve, but what perhaps, I have the right to say, it is that any dispute, on this subject, appears to me as indecent and vain. Let us keep from wanting to scrutinize them, these supreme minutes where, alone in front of oneself, the conscience decides "...