There are affiliated with it several colleges and schools: the Ecole Polytechnique, l’Ecole de Medicine, Comparee et de Science vétérinaire de Montreal, l’Ecole de Chirurgie Dentaire, l’Ecole de Pharmacie Laval, l’Institut Agricole d’Oka, l’Institut des Frères Maristes et l’Institut des Frères de l’Instruction Chrétienne, l’Institut des Frères de Sainte-Croix, the arts and philosophical courses at St. Marys, Loyola and other classical colleges and seminaries, as well as the College of Higher Education for Young Women, conducted in French and English at the Mother House of the Congregation on Sherbrooke Street.
The faculty of theology is constituted by the Grand Seminary which was established in 1840. Its courses last for three years and three months with a further six months for those preparing for the doctorate. A great number of the students who come from all quarters to this faculty, after having taken their courses at Montreal proceed to Rome to the now famous Canadian College, which is an offshoot of the Grand Seminaire of Montreal, being founded in 1888 through the labours of M. Colin, who was superior of the Sulpicians at Montreal from 1881 to 1902. In connection with this latter faculty may be mentioned the Seminary of Philosophy which has been a separate body since 1876.
While the medical faculty of McGill saved the fortunes of that university from extinction, it is to the credit of the pioneers of the medical faculty of the Montreal branch of Laval University that the university movement received its inception. Before its establishment a body of the medical men who had retired from their connection with the medical faculty of the University of Coburg agitated for the foundation of an independent university in the city. Among these were Dr. Rottot, Brosseau, La Marche and E. Persillier-Lachapelle, who acted as the secretary. On approaching the gentlemen of the seminary it was pointed out that it would be unwise and also against prearranged conditions to establish a rival university to that of Laval at Quebec, but that a branch was possible. This solved the difficulty and the necessary steps were taken. The first medical faculty of Laval at Montreal, soon to be formed, was composed of Dr. Rottot as dean, with Drs. E. Persillier-Lachapelle, La Marche, Brosseau, Desrosiers, Berthelot, Fafard, Filiatrault, Duval, Foucher, Bienvenu and others.
Among the first members of the faculty of law was Mr. C.S. Cherrier, Hon. J.P.O. Chauveau, Sir Louis Jetté, Sir Alexander Lacoste, Judge Alphonse Ouimet and Sir H. Archambault.
The dean of the faculty of Science and Belles Lettres was the Abbé Colin.
The faculty of medicine is a continuation of the L’Ecole de Medicine et de Chirurgie de Montreal (the Alma Mater of our older Montreal physicians) founded in 1843 and incorporated in 1845, affiliated at first to the Victoria University of Coburg, in Ontario, and from which it received its degrees up to 1890. At this time the above medical school received a modified charter from the government of Quebec and was allied to the faculty of medicine of the University of Laval, with which it forms today one body.
The faculty of Medicine is installed with that of Law in the main building on St. Denis Street. There are large lecture halls and sectional libraries. The Faculty of Medicine has an addition, a dissecting hall and laboratories for chemistry, histology, bacteriology, therapeutical electricity, etc.
The faculty of arts has not yet reached its fullest development. As scientific and literary instruction which form the ordinary courses of this faculty in English universities is carried out by the classical colleges and petit seminaires, affiliated to Laval University, in which students may obtain the degrees of Bachelor of Letters, of science and of arts, it is unnecessary for the university itself to undertake full instruction of this nature.
Three courses are, however, given in the faculty. The first, that of French literature, founded in 1898 by the late M. l’Abbé Colin, superior of the seminary of St. Sulpice, in Montreal, is entrusted to a Fellow of the University of Paris. The second course is upon public ecclesiastical law and the third is upon aesthetics and the history of art. The other professors, whether ecclesiastics or laymen, of the faculty of arts, conduct the regular courses in the colleges affiliated with the university, in addition to which they occasionally give public lectures in the university itself. The library of the faculty contributes generously to the intellectual development of the students and the public in general. Large annual expenditures secure for it the best current publications. The higher education of women is encouraged by this faculty through the “Ecole d’Enseignement Supérieur pourlles Jeunes Filles” which has its courses in the handsome college on Sherbrooke Street in the Mother House of the Congregation of Notre Dame, founded by Marguerite Bourgeoys, the first teacher in Montreal. It was opened on October 8, 1908, under the presidency of the vice rector of Laval University. The following sections are taught in French and in English by university professors and the ladies of the Congregation: letters, science, arts, commerce and domestic economy. These lead up to a degree in the faculty of arts. Already this school for the higher education of women has shown very substantial results.
Another arm of the faculty of arts has been established in certain congregations of brothers where a university course has been organized modeled on the French system of modern secondary education. The Marist Brothers were the first congregation affiliated on December 15, 1909, being followed later by the Brothers of Christian Instruction of Montreal and the Brothers of the Cross of Jesus of the diocese of Rimouski. In 1912, the same privilege was granted to the Brothers of Holy-Cross.