INSTITUTIONS, DEGREES, ETC. 391 



may deliver either "Certificats d'assiduite" or "Certificats de 

 recherches" or "d'etudes," which are countersigned by the 

 Director. 



Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, at 57 rue Cuvier, Paris. The 

 Museum has as its object to provide public instruction in natural 

 history; but through its instruction and through the investiga- 

 tions carried on in its laboratories, it is an institution of pure 

 science, of free and disinterested research. It comprises eighteen 

 chairs, devoted to the different branches of biological science. 



The courses of the Museum are open to the general public 

 free of charge. In order to follow the lectures and experiments, 

 it is necessary to enroll at the various laboratories ; but no diploma 

 is required, and foreigners are admitted on the same conditions 

 as Frenchmen. The Museum, like the College de France, confers 

 no degree and delivers no diploma. However, a "Certificat 

 d'assiduite" may be given at the end of the year to regular attend- 

 ants by the professors whose courses they have followed. 



Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, at the Sorbonne. This 

 school is intended to furnish, alongside the purely theoretical 

 instruction of the Faculties, advanced practical work which may 

 strengthen and extend it. 



The school is divided into five sections: (i) Historical and 

 philological sciences; (2) Mathematical sciences; (3) Physical- 

 chemical sciences; (4) Biological sciences; (5) Religious sciences. 

 But only the sections of Historical and Philological sciences and 

 that of Religious sciences are centralized, and, installed at the 

 Sorbonne, have a real and autonomous existence. The others are 

 constituted by courses and laboratories at the Museum, the 

 College de France, and at the Faculties of the University of Paris 

 and even of the provinces. 



The courses are open to the public free of charge. No require- 

 ment as to age, nationality, or degree is demanded for enrollment. 

 But in order to be admitted to a laboratory, it is necessary to obtain 

 the permission of the Director. 



The normal course of study is three years. At the end of the 

 first year, which is a sort of probation year, the regular attendants 

 who have done satisfactory work receive the title of "Eleves 

 titulaires de 1'ecole pratique des hautes etudes"; at the end of three 

 years, they may, by presenting a memoir, obtain the title of 

 "Eleves diplomes." " 



