Fourcroy began to acquire influence only after the 9th Thermidor, when the nation was wearied with destruction, and when efforts were making to restore those monuments of science, and those public institutions for education, which during the wantonness and folly of the revolution had been overturned and destroyed. Fourcroy was particularly active in this renovation, and it was to him, chiefly, that the schools established in France for the education of youth are to be ascribed. The Convention had destroyed all the colleges, universities, and academies throughout France. The effects of this absurd abolition soon became visible; the army stood in need of surgeons and physicians, and there were none educated to supply the vacant places: three new schools were founded for educating medical men; they were nobly endowed. The term _schools of medicine_ was proscribed as too aristocratical; they were distinguished by the ridiculous appellation of _schools of health_. The _Polytechnic School_ was next instituted, as a kind of preparation for the exercise of the military profession, where young men could be instructed in mathematics and natural philosophy, to make them fit for entering the schools of the artillery, of engineers, and of the marine. The _Central Schools_ was another institution for which France was indebted to the efforts of Fourcroy. The idea was good, though it was very imperfectly executed. It was to establish a kind of university in every department, for which the young men were to be prepared by a sufficient number of inferior schools scattered through the department. But unfortunately these inferior schools were never properly established or endowed; and even the central schools themselves were never supplied with proper masters. Indeed, it was found impossible to furnish such a number of masters at once. On that account, an institution was established in Paris, called the _Normal School_, for the express purpose of educating a sufficient number of masters to supply the different central schools. Fourcroy, either as a member of the Convention or of the _Council of the Ancients_, took an active part in all these institutions, as far as regarded the plan and the establishment. He was equally concerned in the establishment of the Institute and of the _Musée d'Histoire Naturelle_. This last was endowed with the utmost liberality, and Fourcroy was one of the first professors; as he was also in the School of Medicine and the Polytechnic School. He was equally concerned in the restoration of the university, which constituted one of the most useful parts of Bonaparte's reign.