Cracow University, Dr. Dietl, when elected President of the town, to set large reform schemes afoot for lifting the city out of the wretched situation in which it had been left by the neglect of the central government. However, the financial distress of the impoverished citizens, together with the want of manufacturing activity, this having been hindered by various obstacles and impediments, made it impossible for the town to find the means of carrying out some of those reform plans. In 1872 the Emperor Francis Joseph founded the Academy of Sciences at Cracow. The town has been ever since the centre of Polish literature and art. Methodical investigations in all domains of science were taken up on the Occidental model. Adherence to truth in historical writings was more strictly established, and mere dilettantism discouraged by criticism; the old sources of history were arranged and edited. Natural science, long neglected, made a new start, and names of experimental scientists like Wróblewski and Olszewski (who succeeded in liquifying some gases) became known all over the world. Medicine also has its eminent representatives, who not only give splendour to the medical faculty of the University, but also exercise a most beneficial influence on the reform of the town's sanitary arrangements. Let us mention one only, Dr. Henry Jordan, who founded a large park for the games and sports of youth. This unique institution has done excellent work in improving the physical and moral conditions under which young people grow up in the city.
The collections in Cracow illustrative of history and civilization are rapidly growing, chiefly by gifts from private persons desirous to contribute towards constructing a full image of the glorious past. This tendency prevailing in the public mind is fostered by the municipality, which by preserving the National Museum, fulfils its historical task, and proves a faithful guardian of the relics of civilization. Duke Ladislaus Czartoryski put his famous collections at the disposal of the community by exhibiting them, since 1880, for public inspection in buildings reconstructed after the plans of Viollet le Due. Dr.
