A new arrangement, popularly called the _Bifurcation_, was introduced by the Decrees of the 10th of April, 1852; and has now come into operation. The conditions demanded for the degree in science were adapted to the requirements of the Military Schools; and in return for this concession it is henceforth to be exacted from candidates for the Military Schools. The diploma of arts is no longer required before the diploma of science can be given. The instruction, which in the upper classes of the _Lycées_ had hitherto been mainly preparatory for the former, takes henceforth at a certain point (called that of _Bifurcation_) two different routes, conducting separately, the one to the baccalaureate of arts, the other to that of science. The whole system of teaching has accordingly been altered. Boys wanting to study algebra are no longer carried through a long course of Latin; mathematics are raised to an equality with literature; and thus military pupils--pupils desirous of admission at the Polytechnic and St. Cyr, may henceforth, it is hoped, obtain in the _Lycées_ all the preparation which they had latterly sought elsewhere. Under this new system the usual course for a boy seems to be the following:-- He enters the _Lycée_, in the Elementary Classes; or, a little later, in the Grammar Classes, where he learns Latin and begins Greek. At the age of about fourteen, he is called upon to pass an examination for admission into the Upper Division, and here, in accordance with the new regulations, he makes his choice for mathematics or for literature, the studies henceforth being divided, one course leading to the bachelorship of science, the other to that of arts. In either case he has before him three yearly courses, three classes--the Third, the Second, and what is called the Rhetoric. At the close of this, or after passing, if he pleases, another year in what is called the Logic, he may go up for his bachelor’s degree. The boy who wants to go to St. Cyr or the Polytechnic chooses, of course, the mathematical division leading to the diploma he will want, that of a bachelor of _science_. He accordingly begins algebra, goes on to trigonometry, to conic sections, and to mechanics, and through corresponding stages in natural philosophy, and the like. If he chooses to spend a fourth year in the Logic, he will be chiefly employed in going over his subjects again. He may take his bachelor’s degree at any time after finishing his third year; and he may, if he pleases, having taken that, remain during a fifth or even a sixth year, in the class of Special Mathematics.