J. M. D. Olmsted ^65 



single Central School of Health in Paris. A few footnotes were added to the 

 effect that the recommendations contained in the report were applicable to 

 three schools as well as to a single one. 



The telling argument m this report was, of course, the need for "health 

 officers in military hospitals and camps," for it was stated that "six hundred 

 such officers have perished in the last eighteen months. If it is a glorv for them, 

 since they died serving their country, it is a necessity for the republic to replace 

 this loss." Chaussier went on to point out that opportunity was at the same 

 time afforded to organize a complete system of the art of healing in a way 

 never before attempted. To remedy one of the most glaring defects of pre- 

 Revolutionary medical instruction, namely, the mere reading of obsolete texts, 

 he proposed a startling innovation— lectures were to be supplemented by 

 "exercises on the part of the students, chemical experiments, anatomical dis- 

 sections, surgical operations, use of apparatus. Little to read, much to see, 

 much to do, such shall be the basis of the new teaching . . . Observation at 

 the bedside of patients shall become one of the chief principles of this teach- 

 ing." A second recommendation of equal importance for medical education 

 was to be found in his suggestion that "medicine and surgery are two branches 

 of the same science," and should therefore be taught together to all prospective 

 health officers.* 



The decree as passed by the Convention embodied Chaussier's recommenda- 

 tions, which had been transmitted through Fourcroy. Article i stated the pur- 

 pose of the measure: "There shall be established a School of Health at Paris, 

 at Montpellier, and at Strasbourg; these three schools shall be destined to 

 produce officers of health for the service of the hospitals." Article 3 outlined 

 the general subject matter to be taught, such as "the signs and symptoms of 

 disease," etc., and Article 4 contained the important rider, "Besides this first 

 part of the teaching, students shall practise anatomical, surgical, and chemical 

 operations; they shall observe the nature of diseases at the bedside of patients, 

 and shall follow their treatment in the hospitals near the schools." Article 5 

 provided eight professorships at Montpellier, six at Strasbourg, and twelve at 

 Paris, together with an equal number of associates. Permanent professorships 

 would ensure continuity in the mode of teaching, lack of which had been one 

 of the weaknesses of pre-Revolutionary days. Article 13 showed that Fourcroy 



* The idea tliat surgery should be coequal uith medicine did not originate with C:haussier, 

 but had gradually been taking shape for several years. In 1790, that is, shortly after the down- 

 fall of the monarchy and the establishment of the National Assembly, but before the dissolu- 

 tion of the Faculties of Medicine and Colleges of Surgery, all learned societies were required 

 to make a report to the Assembly on changes in their constitutions necessitated by the new 

 order of society. The Royal Society of Medicine was one of the group and in their report to 

 the Assembly they devoted several pages to a plea that surgeons be required to start their 

 professional training with as good a preliminary education, and that their professional studies 

 be as extensive, as those demanded of physicians. Surgery would thus be placed on a par with 

 medicine. This point of view was clearly stated in the following sentence: "We beg those who 

 are still astonished at this conclusion to reflect that since the division of disease into internal 

 and external is vicious, the separation of medicine and surgery, which depends on such a divi- 

 sion, can no longer be maintained." 



