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FRANCE. 537
request. The smoky atmosphere of political fanaticism
stifled the nobler emotions of humanity, and its devastating
flame laid low all higher intellectual aspirations.
The system of. medical education was pressingly in need
of reform. Of the 18 medical schools possessed by France
at the outbreak of the revolution scarcely one-half of them
were known outside the towns in which they were
situated and only those of Paris and Montpellier enjoyed
any great reputation. The arrangements of the French
medical faculties were inferior to those of other countries,
and the French hospitals were on account of their unsanitary
condition positively a by-word of reproach. The legislature
interested itself in these questions.* A Bill introduced
in 1790 contained many admirable suggestions for a reorganization
of medical teaching ; thus it was demanded
that both in teaching and in the examinations the French
tongue should be exclusively used, that there should be
perfect freedom given to the professors in teaching their
subjects, that the lectures should be gratis, that there
should no longer be any fixed duration of studentship, that
the professors should be appointed by competition, etc.
Instead of the 18 medical schools there were to be only
four medical faculties, in Paris, Montpellier, Bordeaux, and
Strassburg, but each of these was to be provided with at
least 12 professorial chairs, and, in addition, in every
department there was to be a lower order of medical
school associated with a hospital.f Unfortunately these
proposals never came to be the subject of debate.
When radicalism came to be the dominant influence in
the State men were no longer satisfied with improving the
existing arrangements, but demanded their complete
abolition. The place previously occupied by reform was
now taken by revolution, qui vint tout renverser depuis le
trone du roi de France jusqu' a I'humble chaire du pro-
* L. LIARD in the Revue internat. de l'enseignement, Paris 1887, T. xiv, p.
409 et seq.
t DREIFUS-BRISAC in the Revue internationale de l'enseignement, Paris
»88i,ii, 555 etseq..