226 
NATURE 
, 
| uly 17, 1873 
THE NEW LABORATORIES OF THE 
NATURAL AISTORV MUSUEM, PARIS * 
I N order to provide every facility for the higher scientific 
education, and induce young men to devote them- 
selves to scientific research, the French Government have 
established a school of advanced study, in the form of 
a suite of laboratories in which young men receive a 
practical education par excellence ; they are trained there 
in manipulations and dissections, and initiated in all those 
delicacies of touch, those turns of the wrist, which are 
traditional in the green-rooms (coulisses) of science, but 
which cannot be taught in the theatre, 
Without noticing at present the zoological laboratories 
under the zealous management of M, A. Milne-Edwards, 
and through which have already passed several students 
desirous of taking the degree of licentiate in natural 
science; or the physiological laboratory, at the head of 
which is the eminent M. Claude Bernard, or the libora- 
tories of comparative anatomy and geology, we shall take 
the reader through the Rue de Buffon, into the new 
buildings which contain the chemical laboratory of M. 
Fremy, the botanical laboratory of M. Brongniart, and 
the laboratory of vegetable physiology and anatomy of 
M. Decaisne. 
M. Fremy had already, for many years, assembled his 
pupils in the old Museum buildings, badly lighted, 
small, confined, where they were very uncomfortable ; 
now, on the contrary, they are installed in a new building 
where they are furnished with every convenience for their 
work, 
As soon as we enter the court, we fiad on the right and 
left, platforms (fazd/asses) in the open air with a glass 
roof, where all experiments can be made, of a nature 
to taint the atmosphere of the laboratories. On each 
side are ranged buildings, one specially intended for 
beginners, the other for more advanced students. The 
latter is provided with furnices, by means of which the 
UTED 
I 
LUCIEN | 
NH 
E ‘MD 
= 
Laboratery of Vegetable Physiology in the Puris Muscum of Natural History 
highest temperatures may be obtained. Each pupil has | 
his place marked out, his name inscribed upon the frame 
above his work-table, which is furnished with a set of 
drawers and a rack for holding the mazériel appropriate 
for his special work. The laboratory of the assistant 
naturalist, M. Terreil, and the preparatory laboratory, are 
situated in a line with the pupils’ laboratory. 
The bottom of the court opens into a lobby which. 
communicates with the two wings of the building ; here | 
are conveniences for depositing the clothes which the 
students exchange for their working garb on entering the | 
laboratory. A door in this corridor gives access to an | 
antechamber into which open the laboratories of M. | 
Fremy, and that of his special assistant, placed 
side. A 
The first and second stories of the buildings on the 
right and in the centre are intended for the botanists of 
M. Brongniart, who have not yet obtained complete pos- 
* Frem an article in La Nature, No. 1. 
session ; the left wing belongs as yet to chemistry ; on 
the first story is the lecture-hall, on the second the 
library. 2 
M. Fremy has realised the foundation of a true school 
of chemistry ; not only does he lavish on his pupils his 
instructions, but he sees that their education is com- 
plete. Every day at three o’clock work in the laboratory 
ceases, and oral instruction begins, the lecture-hall, more- 
over, being open to the public. M. Fremy gives instruc- 
tion in general chemistry, with a well-known power of ex- 
position; M. Terreil has charge of analysis; M. Ed, 
Becquerel, of the Institute, initiates the students in 
‘ | the management of physical apparatus; Jannetaz, as- 
side by | sistant in mineralogy, 
gives instruction in that branch; 
and lastly, M. Stanislas Meunier, already known by his 
researches upon meteorites, treats of all the parts of 
geology which are connected with chemistry. Examina- 
tions are held by the lecturers for the purpose of 
testing the work of_the pupils, who are rewarded at 
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