The French Academy of Sciences established many important precedents in the development of modern science. One of these was the prize system, which originally involved the conferral of a few highly prestigious prizes. Yet the advance of experimental science in the nineteenth century demanded the availability of funds to carry out future research, rather than the reward of a few successful examples of past research. This paper shows how the members of the Academy gradually transformed the traditional system of prizes awarded with great honour into a less prestigious but more widely shared system of monetary awards, which finally led to a system of grants for younger researchers of promise.

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The revolutionary period in France was a time of great turmoil. It affected all aspects of society including medicine. One feature which has received some attention is the concomitant change in language. The adoption of the general term officier de santé (literally “health officer”) to denote all those practising medicine at the time provides a particularly interesting example, which has never been properly studied. The distinguished French historian of medicine, Jean-Charles Sournia, has said that the term deserves special attention, but he devotes no more than half a page to it.

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