Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 72.djvu/15

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In it are installed the faculties of mathematics and natural history, as well as those of literature. Here are their class-rooms and about forty of their laboratories. Other laboratories are in the museum, or in the Jardin des Plantes, the medical school.

The Sorbonne is now a practical school for advanced students. It has been defined as a complex of historical and philological seminaries of scientific mathematical institutes which owe their existence to the initiative of Minister Duruy in 1838, and are designed to supplement the theoretical instruction of the university with experiments and a visible demonstration of the truth of principles laid down in textbooks or set forth in the lectures of professors.

The Sorbonne furnishes only a few lectures which are free and open to the public. These are given by men of note not connected with the university, and are on topics of commanding interest either in literature or in science. It is needless to add that these lectures attract many listeners. The training in the Sorbonne is better than ever and is worthy its history and its fame.

Another of the institutions which is an honor to Paris and to the French people is the Museum of Natural History, or the Jardin des Plantes. It attracts visitors from every part of the world and arranges many profitable courses of study. It was known at first as the Jardin