[arcHIBALD] MATHEMATICAL INSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 91 
difficulty of getting any reliable information about French as compared 
with German universities. Even when the inquirer is in Paris the 
difficulty does not wholly disappear. 
It would seem then, that a service may be rendered to students and 
university professors who have in prospect a sojourn in Europe for 
mathematical study, if I should present a general view of the situation 
in France, along with fuller details on topics which must be of especial 
interest to every mathematician. 
The plan of the paper is indicated by the table of contents. 
GENERAL REMARKS—EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND 
PRIMARY INSTRUCTION. 
To more thoroughly understand the methods and ends of mathe- 
matical instruction in France it will be well to introduce here some brief 
general remarks. 
For educational purposes France is divided geographically into 
arrondissements. The assemblage of government schools (primary, 
secondary and superior) in each arrondissement, forms an académie over 
which a recteur presides. We thus have the 16 académies of Aix-Mar- 
seilles, Besancon, Bordeaux, Caen, Chambéry, Clermont, Dijon, Gren- 
oble, Lille, Lyons, Montpellier, Nancy, Paris, Poitiers, Rennes, Toulouse, 
as well as a seventeenth at Algiers. With the exception of Chambéry 
these names correspond to the seats of the French universities, which 
have from two to four faculties (law, science, letters, medicine) each, 
the faculties of science and letters together corresponding to the German 
philosophische Facultät. In the académie first named above, the 
faculties of law and letters are at Aix and the faculties of science and 
medicine at Marseilles. 
The assemblage of académies forms the Université de France, at 
the head of which is the Minister of Public Instruction, who is ex officio 
the “Recteur de l’Académie de Paris et Grand Maitre de l’Université 
de Paris” For the Académie de Paris there is a vice-recteur, 
whose duties are the same as those of the recteurs of other académies. 
Although nominally lower in rank than the heads of académies in the 
provinces, he is in reality, the most powerful official in the educational 
system. The position of the Minister of Public Instruction being so 
insecure by reason of changing governments, continuity of scheme is 
assured by three lieutenants who have charge respectively of the 
primary, secondary and superior education. They in turn have an 
army of inspectors who report on the work and capabilities of the recteurs 
and their académies as far as primary and secondary instruction is 
concerned. 
