382 THE LATEST REFORM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. 



truly royal gifts: the Nizza Observatory with its branch estab- 

 lishments, the station for marine biology at Wimereux, capital 

 to such an amount, that the interest serves annually to enable five 

 students or young doctors, to make a voyage round the world. 

 Moreover, an association was founded in 1898, called a " Societe 

 des Amis de I'Universite de Paris," which has for its object to 

 further and promote the development of that University by the 

 creation of additional chairs and lectureships, by subsidies to 

 laboratories and libraries, by the organization of University exten- 

 sion work, outside the facuUes, by founding scholarships, etc. 

 Indeed, more has materialized than was hoped for. It seems to be 

 in the nature of things, that examples of this kind are catching, 

 and it stands to belief that the University of Paris, which has 

 now become anew, what it was in the 13th centurv, the most 

 populous university in the world, will be in all probability one of 

 the richest forty or fifty years hence. She has resumed her place — 

 and in the olden times this place was in the foremost ranks — 

 among the universities of the world. Foreign as well as French 

 universities have invited her to associate her illustrious self with 

 their jubilees. Leyden received and feasted her delegates in 

 1875, Heidelberg in 1886, Bologna in 1888, Montpellier in i88g, 

 Lausanne in 1891, Dublin in 1892, Philadelphia in 1893, Halle in 

 1894, Glasgow, Princeton (U.S.) and Edinburgh in 1895, 1896, 

 1897. In her turn, she acted as hostess to the delegates of near 

 and distant sister universities in igoo. 



The University of Paris is at present again, what she was in 

 her youth, the rendezvous of a host of students of every 

 nationality. Over 1,200 foreigners are inscribed in her rolls : 

 British, Hollanders, Belgians, Germans, Russians, Roumanians, 

 Swiss, Americans, etc. Of the huge current of Americans and 

 Japanese students that has been passing for years through the 

 universities of Germany, a broad section has of late been diverted 

 to Paris, the city of light, " la ville lumi^re. " 



Although the new or rather the rejuvenated university of Paris 

 feels most keenly, that she is the legitimate offspring of the old 

 one, and that, accordingly, the roots of her genealogical tree 

 strike down to the 13th century, she has never indulged in any 

 foolish pride of pedigree or nobility, and does not vouchsafe any 

 of those artificial imitations of archaic forms of university life, 

 which are traditional almost everywhere outside France. The 

 Council of the new University has volunteered to publish the 

 Cartulaire, the charter of the old one (strange enough this delicate 

 work has had to be entrusted to an Austrian Dominican, resident 

 in Rome, as the most competent man to take this publication in 

 hand). As for the obsolete customs, the old names, the ana- 

 chromistic costumes, they have not been reinstated in their former 

 honour. It has not even been attempted to introduce anything 

 like the distinctive colours and badees, so dear to the English 

 colleges, to the Dutch, the Swedish and German universities. 

 For a short while indeed, a few velvet caps and scarfs, showing 

 the colours of the facultds, were conspicuous in the Quartier latin 

 and its surroundines : but as these ornaments came to be largely 

 sported by philandering counter-jumpers and office clerks, na 



