August 6, 1903] 



NATURE 



323 



THIRTY YEARS OF UNIVERSITY EDUCA- 

 TION IN FRANCE. 



THE modern conception of a University in France 

 dates from the Revolution. In place of the old 

 Sorbonne, veritable Bastille of scholasticism, the new 

 University was conceived as a kind of laboratory and 

 clearing-house in which every form of knowledge was 

 to_ be pursued or dispensed. Yet in spite of the multi- 

 plicity of the subjects, unity was to be secured by the 

 natural connection between the different branches and 

 the common aims and ideals of the teachers them- 

 selves. Unfortunately the Revolution failed to realise 

 the grandiose ideas of Talleyrand and Condorcet. With 

 the exception of the Institute, the only establishments 

 it created were the so-called " special schools " limited 

 to the study of a single science or group of subjects, 

 such as, for instance, the school of mathematics, the 

 school of medicine, the school of Oriental languages, 

 &c. To these the Consulate added the schools of law 

 ind altered the title of many of these schools into that 

 of "faculties." It further increased the number of 

 faculties by adding those of letters and of science. The 

 research side of university work was ignored, the 

 faculties were mere examination machines for turning 

 out professional men. The only university was the 

 University of France, which, though made a corporate 

 body by Napoleon, was above all things an institution 

 for the propagation of an official education most favour- 

 able to Imperialism. To this university all the different 

 faculties in the different towns were subordinated. 

 But here all connection ended. Although often exist- 

 ing three and four together in the same town, they 

 were completely strangers to one another, having no 

 unity or even relationship with one another, almost 

 entirely devoid of the necessary resources, not merely 

 for original investigation, but also for their ordinary 

 work. 



The evils arising from such an excessive centralisa- 

 tion combined with the practical isolation of the local 

 faculties were certain to make themselves felt in the 

 long run. " Paris," wrote Guizot in his " Memoires," 

 "morally attracts and absorbs France." For this, in 

 his eyes, the only remedy was the creation of a few 

 large provincial universities. Recognising the im- 

 possibility of creating seventeen complete and fully 

 equipped universities, he proposed to limit their number 

 to four. Unhappily he was in advance of his time. 

 The second Republic reduced the status of the uni- 

 versity itself from that of a corporation to a mere 

 branch of the central Government. The most en- 

 lightened Education Minister of the Empire, Victor 

 Duruy, seeing the impossibility of reforming the 

 faculties, determined to establish alongside of them a 

 scientific institution called the ficole des hautes Etudes, 

 which reminds one, though its scope was wider, of the 

 Royal College of Science, inasmuch as the savants who 

 formed the " personnel " were chosen on their merits 

 alone, and no question was made as to whether they 

 were members or not of the university. The school 

 had no fixed quarters, but any professor of ability in 

 the Sorbonne, the College de France, the Museum of 

 Natural History, or in any laboratory, was pressed into 

 the service of this new corps of learned and scientific 

 teachers. The effect of the opening of this " opposition 

 shop " was most beneficial on higher education 

 throughout the whole of the country. 



Nevertheless the general condition of higher educa- 

 tion was, in the words of M. Liard, " very lamentable, 

 and what was most lamentable of all was not the in- 

 sufficiency of the buildings, the poverty-stricken state 

 of the laboratories, collections and libraries, or the 

 dearth of resources, but the almost absolute miscon- 

 ception of their real functions by the professors of those 



NO. 1762. VOL. 68] 



faculties which ought to have been above all the instru- 

 ments of scientific progress and of the propagation of 

 scientific methods. With a few exceptions, in the 

 faculty of letters the teaching was above all rhetorical 

 and fashionable, in that of science it was nearly every- 

 where limited to the mere popularisation of discoveries. 

 The highest work of university education, the training 

 and formation of the man of science, was almost un- 

 known. The admirable savants of the time were self- 

 taught persons without a university degree." 



Such was the state of things when the disaster of 1870 

 occurred. With the conclusion of peace, savants and 

 patriots joined forces in favour of a radical reform of 

 the university system. It was felt that inefficiency in 

 higher education had been one of the causes of national 

 defeat. 



The most competent judges were agreed that the 

 essential defect in university education was the multi- 

 plicity and isolation of the faculties. The remedy in 

 their eyes was the concentration of the faculties of the 

 different orders into a limited number of " powerful 

 centres of study, science and intellectual progress." 

 Jules Simon affirmed the necessity of " having a cer- 

 tain number of intellectual capitals in which are to be 

 found united all the necessary resources for the com- 

 plete development of the young." Again, according 

 to M. Laboulaye, universities were the one thing 

 needful. " Let them cease to scatter over the surface 

 of P'rance faculties the isolation of which condemned 

 them to sterility." 



Some of the strongest arguments in favour of reform 

 came from the men of science of the day. It was 

 pointed out that the duty of the Universities was not 

 merely to distribute the existing stores of knowledge, 

 but also to lead in the van of discovery. " Close the 

 laboratories and libraries," said Bertholet, "stop 

 original investigation and we shall return to scholas- 

 ticism." Insistence was also laid on the extreme value 

 of scientific discovery as a factor in the industrial 

 struggle between the different nations, while at the 

 same time the importance of introducing the scientific 

 spirit into the mental life of a people only too often 

 swayed by sudden emotions was strongly emphasised. 



But the advocates of university reform had a very 

 serious difficulty to encounter at the outset. Alongside 

 of the faculties there already existed the big scientific 

 establishments like the College de France, the 

 Museum of Natural History, and the professional 

 schools, such as the Ecole Polytechnique and the ficole 

 Normale, in which the flower of military engineers and 

 university professors were being trained. All these 

 bodies were bitterly hostile to incorporation. For- 

 tunately they were all situated in Paris, where in reality 

 there was room both for themselves and the Univer- 

 sity. The main problem after all was the creation 

 of provincial universities. 



Here the difficulties were far more real and pressing. 

 To begin with, many of the existing professors in the 

 faculties were by no means in sympathy with the re- 

 formers. For them the function of the faculties was to 

 turn out lawyers, magistrates, doctors, pharmaceutical 

 chemists (the calling of chemist in France ranks as 

 a liberal profession), not to conduct original research. 

 Did not the College de France and the Museum of 

 Natural History exist specially for these purposes? The 

 answer was one which has since been given in higher 

 technical education in England and elsewhere, that 

 science should be the centre of professional training. 

 Practice without science was pure empiricism, and 

 empiricism was out of date. Claude Bernard had 

 already converted medicine into an experimental science, 

 and the historical method had wrought a similar trans- 

 formation in the study of law. Whether the faculties 

 remained isolated or not, they would henceforth have to 



