Its object is to contribute to the progress of the arts and sciences,
particularly pharmacy, chemistry, botany, and natural history. This
society admits, as free and corresponding associates, _savans_ of all
the other departments of France and of foreign countries, who
cultivate those sciences and others analogous to them. Some of the
most enlightened men in France are to be found among its members.
The advantageous changes made in the teaching of medicine, since the
revolution, appear to consist chiefly in the establishment of
clinical lectures. The teaching of the sciences, accessory to
medicine, partakes more or less advantageously of the great progress
made in that of chemistry. It seems that, in general, the students in
medicine grant but a very limited confidence to accredited opinions,
and that they recur to observation and experience much more than they
did formerly. As for the changes which have occurred in the practice
of medicine, I think it would be no easy matter to appreciate them
with any degree of exactness. Besides, sufficient time has not yet
elapsed since the establishment of the new mode of teaching, for them
to assume a marked complexion. It is, however, to be observed that,
by the death of the celebrated DÉSAULT, Surgery has sustained a loss
which is not yet repaired, nor will be perhaps for ages.
[Footnote 1: A law to this effect is now made.]