PIERRE CURIE
BY
MARIE CURIE
Translated by
CHARLOTTE AND VERNON KELLOGG
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY MRS. WILLIAM BROWN MELONEY
AND AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
BY MARIE CURIE
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1923
Copyright, 1923,By MARIE CURIE.
"It is possible to conceive that in criminal hands radium might provevery dangerous, and the question therefore arises whether it be to theadvantage of humanity to know the secrets of nature, whether we hesufficiently mature to profit by them, or whether that knowledge may notprove harmful. Take, for instance, the discoveries of Nobel—powerfulexplosives have made it possible for men to achieve admirable things,but they are also a terrible means of destruction in the hands of thosegreat criminals who draw nations into war. I am among those who believewith Nobel that humanity will obtain more good than evil from futurediscoveries."
PIERRE CURIE,
Nobel Conference, 1903.
TRANSLATORS' NOTE
The translators wish to acknowledge their obligations to Dr. R. B.Moore, Chief Chemist, U. S. Bureau of Mines, and an American authorityon radium, who kindly read the whole translation in manuscript in orderto assure its accuracy as to the technical details referred to by MadameCurie in her account of the work of her husband and herself on radium.
PREFACE
It is not without hesitation that I have undertaken to write thebiography of Pierre Curie. I should have preferred confiding this taskto some relative or some friend of his infancy who had followed hiswhole life intimately and possessed as full a knowledge of his earliestyears as of those after his marriage. Jacques Curie, Pierre's brotherand the companion of his youth, was bound to him by the tenderestaffection. But after his appointment to the University of Montpellier, helived far from Pierre, and he therefore insisted that I should write thebiography, believing that no one else better knew and understood thelife of his brother. He communicated to me all his personal memories;and to this important contribution, which I have utilized in full, Ihave added details related by my husband himself and a few of hisfriends. Thus I have reconstituted as best I could that part of hisexistence that I did not know directly. I have, in addition, triedfaithfully to express the profound impression his personality made uponme during the years of our life together.
This narrative is, to be sure, neither complete nor perfect. I hope,nevertheless, that the picture it gives of Pierre Curie is not deformed,and that it will help to conserve his memory. I wish, too, that it mightremind those who knew him of the reasons for which they loved him.
M. C.