35 4 APPENDIX I 



IV. ORIGIN OF THE RECENT CHANGES. 



It seems a little odd that an American who, like many of his 

 countrymen, after finishing his college course in America, had com- 

 pleted his studies in Germany by taking the degree Ph. D. at Halle, 

 should have been the first to bring the matter of reorganization of 

 the higher education in France to the attention of the French au- 

 thorities. After having made, in 1895, quite a thorough examina- 

 tion of the principal schools in Paris, particularly the Sorbonne, 

 College de France, ficole des hautes etudes, Mr. Harry J. Furber, 

 a graduate of the University of Chicago (1886), and for a number 

 of years a student abroad and in foreign universities, came to the 

 conclusion that the advantages which it might be possible for Amer- 

 ican students to procure in Paris were extraordinary. He then 

 asked himself why it was that, notwithstanding, there were but 

 thirty American students enrolled at the Sorbonne, while at the 

 same time at the University of Berlin there were over two hundred. 

 Moreover, if a count were made of all American students pursuing 

 courses in the twenty-six German universities, the sum total of 

 more than a thousand would offer a still more unfavorable and 

 striking contrast for France to the total number of American stu- 

 dents enrolled in the latter country's sixteen university centers. 

 As regards the number of artists and sculptors studying in Paris, 

 the sum total of Americans among them proved clearly the superior 

 attractiveness of the French capital to them as an art center over 

 all other places. Mr. Furber realized that if the figures showed in 

 the domain of letters so marked a predilection on the part of 

 American students for German university centers, the inducements 

 offered there in science and letters must be far superior to those 

 offered in France. He then found what has already been shown; 

 namely, that the regulations in force, while doubtless well adapted 

 to the needs of French students, were entirely unsuitable to the 

 wants of foreign students, and particularly Americans. Mr. Fur- 

 ber then drew up a memorial stating the case clearly to M. Poin- 

 care, the minister of public instruction. These ideas, of which a 

 summary has here been presented, were given to the general public 

 in an article published in the Journal des Debats, of June 7, 1895, 

 by M. Michel Breal, a member of the Institute and a professor at 

 the College de France. Moreover, M. Breal made a strong plea 

 for the advantages offered outside of Paris by the provincial uni- 

 versities. Nowhere, he said, could French life in all its intimacy 



