32€ Biographical Accoimt of [MaYj 



Jinow tlie obligation he lay under to him till long after. At last 

 liis own life was threatened, and his influence of course utterly 

 annihilated. 



During this unfortunate and disgraceful period, several of the 

 jnost eminent literary characters of France were destroyed; 

 ^mong others, Lavoisier; and Fourcroy has been accused of 

 contributing to the death of this illustrious philosopher, his 

 former rival, and his master in chemistry. How far such an 

 accusatioji is deserving of credit, I for my part have no means 

 of determining ; but Cuvier, who was upon the spot, and in a 

 situation which enabled him to investigate its truth or falsehood, 

 iacquits Fourcroy entirely of the charge, and declares that it was 

 urged against him merely out of envy at his subsequent eleva- 

 tion. If in the rigorous researches which we have made,'* 

 says Cuvier, in his Eloge of Fourcroy, " we had found the 

 smallest proof of an atrjocity so horrible, no human power could 

 })ave induced us to sully our mouths with his Eloge, or to have 

 pronounced it within the walls of this temple, which ocght to 

 foe no less sacred to honour than to genius." 



Fourcroy began to acquire influence only after the 9th ther= 

 piidor, when the nation was weaned with destruction, and when 

 ^efforis were niaking to restore those monuments of science, 

 and those public institutions for education, which, during the 

 wantonness and folly of the revolution, had been overturned and 

 destroyed. Fourcroy was pajrticularly active in this renovation, 

 and it was to him chiefly that almost all the schools established 

 in France tor the education of youth are to be ascribed. The 

 Convention had destroyed all the colleges, and universities, and 

 academies, throughout France. The eiFects of this ridiculous 

 abolition soon became visible. The army stood in need of 

 surgeons and pliysicians^ and there were none educated to supply 

 the vacant places. Three new schools were founded for 

 educating njedical men. They were nobly endowed, and still 

 continue connected with the University of Paris. The term 

 schools of rr.edicme was proscribed as too aristocratical. They 

 ^vere distirguished by the ridiculous appellation of schools of 

 health. Tiie Polytechnic School was next instituted, as a kind 

 of prepaiatiori for the exercise of the military profession, where 

 young men could be instructed in mathematics and natural 

 philosophy, to make them fit for entering the schools of the 

 artillery, of er.gin'eers, and of the marine. The central schools 

 was ancil^er institution for Vihich France is indebted to the 

 efforts of Fourcroy. Ihe idea was good, though it has been 

 yery imperfectly put in execution It was to establish a kind of 

 oniversity in every department, for which the young men were 

 10 be prepared by means of a suificient number of inferior 

 schools scattered through the department. But these inferior 



