LAKANAL, JOSEPH (1762-1845), French politician, was born at Serres (Ariege) on July 14, 1762. His name, originally Lacanal, was altered to distinguish him from his Royalist broth ers. In 1792 he was acting as vicar to his uncle Bernard Font (1723-180o), the constitutional bishop of Pamiers, when he was elected to the Convention, where he held apart from the various party sections. He became a member of the Committee of Public Instruction and brought forward on June 26 his Projet d'education nationale which proposed to lay the burden of pri mary education on the public funds, but to leave secondary edu cation to private enterprise. The scheme, in the main the work of Sieyes, was refused by the Convention. Lakanal began to work for the organization of higher education, and abandoning the prin ciple of his Projet advocated the establishment of state-aided schools for primary, secondary and university education. After the revolution of Thermidor, he became president of the Education Committee and drew up various educational schemes, continuing his reports, in spite of the supersession of his system, after his election to the council of the Five Hundred. In 1799 he was sent
by the Directory to organize the defence of the four departments on the left bank of the Rhine threatened by invasion. Under the consulate he resumed his professional work, and after Waterloo retired to America, where he became president of the university of Louisiana. He returned to France in 1834, and died in Paris on Feb. 14, 1845. Lakanal was an original member of the Insti tute of France. He published in 1838 an Exposé sommaire des travaux de Joseph Lakanal.