It was instituted for the purpose of continuing the labours of the
_ci-devant_ Royal Society of Medicine and the old Academy of Surgery.
With this view, it is charged to keep up a correspondence, not only
with the medical men resident within the limits of the Republic, but
also with those of foreign countries, respecting every object that
can tend to the progress of the art of healing.
* * * * *
As far back as the year 1777, there existed in Paris a college of
Pharmacy. The apothecaries, composing this college, had formed, at
their own expense, an establishment for instruction relative to the
curative art, in their laboratory and garden in the _Rue de
l'Arbalêtre_. Since the revolution, the acknowledged utility of this
institution has caused it to be maintained under the title of the