Technikatörténeti szemle 19. (1992)

KÖNYVISMERTETÉS - Papers of the First „MINERALKONTOR” International Conference on the History of Chemistry and Chemical Industry (Veszprém, 12-16 August, 1991)

engineering. Monge was the first director, and the professors included Fourcroy, Guyton and Berthohet. Doctors were also needed by the armies and in 1795 a large new medical school was opened in Paris, which soon produced three hundred graduates a year. Like the Ecole Polytechnique it had some very distinguished professors, including Fourcroy who lectured at both colleges and also at the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, the former Jardin du Roi which was reorganised as a centre for scientific research as well as teaching. The junior posts created at these institutions opened up opportunities for young men to make a career in science, and their graduates provided a new generation of highly trained chemists who did much to developed the subject in France in the early nineteenth century. Among these were two important chemists, N. L. Vauquelin, who started his career as Fourcroy's assistant at the Museum, and Vauquelin's own student M. E. Chevreul, as well as J. L. Gay-Lussac and C. B. Desormes who were early students at the Ecole Polytechnique. The year 1795 saw the foundation of the Institut National des Sciences et des Arts. After the suppression of the Academy two years earlier scientists had continued informal meetings but they felt that a formal organisation with government support was needed. The original members included many former academicians, and in most respects the Institut revived the activities of the old Academy. It honoured scientists by electing them to membership, it provided a meeting place where research could be discussed, it produced reports for the government. But there was one important difference. Unlike the old Academy, the Institut did not act as the government's agent in controlling scientific publication, so independent societies flourished and were free to produce their own periodicals, and this speeded up the progress of science. In 1797 the Institut elected a new member, an artillery officer named Napoleon Bonaparte. At the age of twenty-eight he was already a successful general and a national hero, but he also had a genuine interest in science and his friends included Monge and Berthohet. Napoleon seized power in 1799 and appointed a number of scientists to important government posts. Berthohet became a senator, and used part of his very large income to finance a private research laboratory providing facilities for promising young scientists. Fourcroy was Napoleon's minister of education for six years, and laid the foundations of a system of education that served France well for many decades. Guyton was appointed director of the mints and another chemist, J. A. Chaptal, became Minister of the Interior. He had a strong interest in industrial chemistry and undoubtedly influenced Napoleon in his decision to support many industries to a far greater extent than the pre-Revolutionary government. Chemical education and research made great progress in France and by the end of the Napoleonic period in 1815 chemistry was being applied to industry in an unprecedented way. Had it not been for the Revolution these changes would have taken place far more slowly. They were as important as any other achievements of this stormy period.