108 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
HiGHER MATHEMATICAL INSTRUCTION. 
L'enseignement supérieur is carried on in universities, great 
scientific establishments and special schools. We shall consider in 
particular, the mathematical instruction as given at the Sorbonne, 
the Ecole Normale Supérieure, the Ecole Polytechnique and the Collége 
de France. 
THE SORBONNE. 
The Université de Paris consists of the faculties de droit, de médecine, 
des sciences, des lettres. (Faculties of Catholic and Protestant theology 
were suppressed in the years 1885 and 1906 respectively.) The faculties 
of science and letters have their offices, lecture rooms, laboratories and 
special libraries in a building now called the Sorbonne. This building 
contains also the headquarters of the officers of the Académie de Paris 
and of the university administration, the museums, the main university 
library, the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, the Ecole des Chartres 
and the great amphitheatre capable of seating 3,500 persons and adorned 
with a large allegorical painting, “the masterpiece of Puvis de Chavannes 
and one of the finest decorative works of our time.” 
The present Sorbonne, completed less than a decade ago, is an 
immense and magnificent edifice, erected to replace the old Sorbonne 
(the outlines of which may be seen in the courtyard), dating from the 
time of Richelieu. To make room for the newer building, the older 
was (in 1885) torn down, with the exception of the chapel, which 
picturesquely nestles in the midst of the new structure. The name 
Sorbonne harks from the time of the confessor of St. Louis, Robert 
de Sorbon, who in the thirteenth century founded a sort of hostel for 
the reception of poor students of theology and their teachers. This 
soon acquired a high reputation as the centre of scholastic theology, 
and the name came to be applied to the faculty itself, which continued 
to exercise great influence on French catholicism down through the 
centuries. It was suppressed, along with some twenty other univer- 
sities, during the Revolution. But under Napoleon, in 1808, the Sor- 
bonne was re-established as the seat of the monster Université de 
France, which embraced all the universities, secondary schools, ete., 
in the country. The details of this organization did not prove accept- 
able, and in 1896 the arrangement explained in the early part of this 
paper came into effect. 
Judged by the number of students, the Université de Paris is the 
largest university in the world. In January last, 17,512 students had 
registered. Nearly half of these were law students, while of the remain- 
der, 1,845 were pursuing work in one or more of the twenty-three 
