At the beginning of the Revolution, Cantin proposed that this work of information should be under taken in each department by a commission elected from among the doctors; Mathieu Geraud demanded the creation in every large town of a 'government health centre' and in Paris of a 'health court', sitting beside the National Assembly, centralizing information, conveying it from one part of the country to another, discussing questions that still remain obscure, and indicating what research needs to be carried out.