October to, 1895] 



NA TURE 



57i 



branches of knowledge rather than for purely pedagogic 

 ability, though the object for which the school was 

 founded was to instruct teachers in the principles of their 

 profession. Berthollet was the only one of the professors 

 of science who paid any serious attention to that subject 

 in the official programme issued to the students ; his col- 

 leagues confined themselves to purely scientific matters. 

 Methods of research appear to have formed the subjects 

 of the lectures rather than methods of e.xposition and 

 education ; Lagrange and Laplace made this plain in the 

 following announcement of their courses; "To present 

 tlic most important discoveries that have been made in 

 the domain of science, to develop the principles under- 

 lying them ; to notice the acute and valuable ideas which 

 gave birth to them ; to indicate the most direct road to 

 discovery, and the best sources where details can be 

 obtained ; to show what is still to be done, and the steps 

 it is necessary to take ; these are the objects of the 

 Normal School, and it is from this point of view that 

 mathematics will be taught." 



On January 21, 1795, the lectures commenced at the 

 Museum d'histoirc naturelle, the amphitheatre of which 

 had just been completed, and which was given up pro- 

 visionally to the Normal .School. In the presence of a 

 large assembly, Lakanal read the decree establishing the 

 school, and was followed by Laplace, Haiiy, and Monge, 

 e.ich of whom read their programmes, and indicated the 

 lines they intended to follow. But the excited state of 

 France during this period was such that the students 

 coukl not be properly disciplined. Political petitions and 

 manifestos frequently emanated from the school, and 

 there appears to have been an almost entire want of 

 organisation. The excessive petulance of the students 

 showed itself during the lectures, and especially in de- 

 bates after the lectures, the subjects of which were freely 

 discussed and criticised, to the frequent embarrassment of 

 the professors. Eventually the debates were suppressed 

 in the case of the science lectures. Haiiy substituted the 

 debates by laboratory work, and the professors of mathe- 

 matics instituted debating societies to be managed 

 entirely by the students, who were to mutually assist one 

 another. These conferences were only organised for 

 mathematics, and they appear to have been installed at 

 the College de France, where they were held every day. 

 'l"hc "conference" system of education is a legacy from 

 the Normal School of the year III. of the National Con- 

 vention ; to that school is also largely due the jjlace which 

 science now occupies in the French system of education ; 

 letters and science were taught by men of equal high rank 

 and authority, and the stuclents selected either branch of 

 knowledge, according to their inclinations and natural 

 gifts. The students at the school were drawn from all 

 parts of France, and maintained by the Republic, liut 

 the national exchequer at the time could not stand any 

 extra drain upon its impoverished resources. It is, there- 

 fore, no matter of surprise that when the courses ended 

 in May 1795, tl'*^ school was closed. 



In spite of its imperfections, the School of the Conven- 

 tion exerted great and beneficial influence upon the 

 French nation. Biot, in his history of science during 

 the French Revolution, compares the school to a "vast 

 luminous column which rose so high from the middle of a 

 desolate land that its great brilliancy covered France and 

 enlightened the future." And, speaking at the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences in 1833, Arago said, with reference 

 to the school, " It was always necessary to go back to the 

 F'.cole normale to find the first ])ublic instruction in descrip- 

 tive geometry, l-'rom that school the instruction passed, : 

 almost without modilications, to the licole polytechniquc. 

 From till! Kcolc normale also dates a veritable rexolution 

 in the study of pme mathematics. The demonstrations, i 

 methods, and important theories hidden in academic col- I 

 lections, were for the first time presented to students, and 

 encouraged them to rebuild, on new bases, the works 



NO. 1354, VOL. 52] 



intended for education." Arago thus showed that, 

 through the Normal School, science gained the right of an 

 important place in public education. He insisted upon 

 another point none the less important, viz. that at the 

 Normal School, for the first time, at least officially, public 

 education was given by the first men of intellect in the 

 country. " With some rare e.xceptions, scientific investi- 

 gators atone time formed in France a class totally distinct 

 from that of the professors. By bringing the first g^eometers, 

 the first physicists, the first naturalists into the profes- 

 soriate, the Con\ ention endowed the educational functions 

 with unusual advantages, the fortunate results of which 

 are still felt. In the eyes of the public, the school that 

 bore the names of Lagrange, Laplace, Monge, and 

 Berthollet could claim equality with the highest places of 

 instruction." The first Normal School, in fact, in spite of 

 its brief existence, founded a tradition which was preserved 

 during the Restoration, and under the second Empire, 

 and which has had a decisive influence upon the history 

 of education in France. For this reason, M Dupuy is 

 justified in concluding his detailed history of the School 

 of the Convention with the words : "The centenary that 

 the Ecole normale has celebrated this year is therefore 

 more than the centenary of its name ; it is that of the 

 institution itself under its first form." 



The second stage in the history of the Normal School 

 began in 1808 (that is, four years after Napoleon had 

 changed France into an Empire), with an Imperial 

 decree establishing " un pcnsionnat normal, destind 

 a recevoir jusqu'a trois cents jeunes gens qui y 

 seront formes a Tan d'enseigner les letlres et 

 las sciences." This decree extending the organisa- 

 tion of the French University, created two years 

 before, founded definitely the present school. Before 

 students were permitted to enter the school, they had to 

 agree to remain in the teaching profession at least ten 

 years. They attended classes at the Colltjge de F" ranee, 

 the Ecole polytechnique, and the Museum d'histoire 

 naturelle, according to whether they intended to instruct 

 in letters, or in different branches of science. An annual 

 grant of three hundred thousand francs (^12,000) was 

 voted for the expenses of the school. The regula- 

 tions were based upon those of the colleges of the 

 old university, so the students were prevented from 

 taking part in the affairs of the political world. This 

 organisation, however, did not last long ; for in 1S14 

 there came the entrance of France by the Allies, the 

 abdication of Najioleon, and the tragic hundred days, all 

 of which, with later events, had their eflects upon the 

 school. Louis WIIL proposed to change the organi- 

 sations of the school and university, and a decree with 

 this end in view was jiassed in P'cbruary 1815. But 

 when N,apoleon returned from Elbe, a few days later, he 

 entirely suppressed the new regulations, and re-established 

 the Imperial University in accordance with the decree of 

 1808. And when the Em])ire finally fell, the ministers of 

 Louis Will, abandoned the idea of changing the 

 organisation, and themselves supported the Imperial 

 system. The school existed up to 1822 under these 

 rules, when it was decided that its place should be taken 

 by Ecoles normales particlles. Four years later the school 

 was re-established, but in order not to e.xcite memories of 

 the Revolution and the Empire, it was named the "Ecole 

 preparatoirc." Only in the name did this school differ from 

 the old Normal School, and even that was restored by 

 Louis Phillippe, Duke of Orleans, who, in .Vugust 1830, 

 shortly after he became King of the French, issued an order 

 that "the school devoted to the education of professors, 

 and for some years carried on under the name of Ecole 

 preparaloire, is to reassume the title of Ecole normale." 

 A little later, the school was organised on the lines upon 

 which the studies are carried there to-d;iy. The.duration 

 of the course of study, which in the Ecole preparatoirc 

 had been two years, was definitely fixed at three years, 



