Société des observateurs de l'homme

[1] The brevity of its existence and relative dearth of records provide scant history, but they did leave traces of their involvement with feral child Victor of Aveyron, as well as the Baudin expedition to Australia.

[1] The Constitution of the Society was set at its inaugural meeting in the Rue de Seine, in August 1799.

There they brought together naturalists, physicians (including psychiatrists), philosophers, writers, historians, linguists, orientalists, and archaeologists under the chairmanship of John de Maimieux.

In 1800, the Society offered a 600 franc prize for the study of very young children with an eye toward discovering the extent to which their physical, intellectual, and moral faculties are supported or opposed by the influences of the objects and people in the child's environment.

Déterminer par l'observation journalière de un ou plusieurs enfants au berceau l'ordre dans lequel les facultés physiques, intellectuelles et morales se développent et jusqu'à quel point ce développement est secondé ou contrarié par l'influence des objets et des personnes qui environnent l'enfant.