Bert, PAUL, French statesman and physiologist, was born at Auxerre in 1833. He studied both law and medicine, became assistant to Claude Bernard at the College of France, and successively occupied the chairs of Physiology at Bordeaux and Paris. Entering political life in 1870, on the proclamation of the Republic, he was four times re-elected to the Chamber. He brought forward laws removing primary instruction from the control of the religious orders, and making it compulsory. During the premiership of Gambetta he held the post of minister of public instruction and worship. While engaged in public life, M. Bert still pursued with ardour his scientific investigations, attracting world-wide attention by his experiments in vivisection. Appointed by the French Ministry to the governorship of Tonquin and Annam, he went out there in 1886, but died on 11th November of the same year. The anti-religious views of M. Bert excited much controversy. He was also the author of several works on anatomy and physiology, and of numerous educational and political writings. M.
Bert was a member of the French Academy of Sciences, and of many other distinguished bodies at home and abroad.