In September 1793 the Convention effectively revoked the rights of individuals, and a period of extreme violence known as the Terror began. At its conclusion 10 months later, a new government reconstituted the Académie in a new guise, that of the Institut de France. Acceptance to the institute was based on merit, not inherited wealth, and because other centers in France were also doing research and acting as consultants, its members no longer formed an isolated group. The old idea that science was sufficient to itself was replaced by the expectation that science be useful. Increasingly, science became less and less like art. This differentiation was the beginning of the professionalization of science. It became possible to conceive of it as something a person could make a career of.
A national system of secondary schools was established, with an emphasis on mathematics. In 1794 the Ecole Polytechnique was formed to train engineers to defend the republic. Mathematics and chemistry were taught by renowned teachers such as Pierre Simon de Laplace (1749-1827), Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736-1813), and Claude Louis Berthollet (1748-1822).
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