The new Liberal regime founded the Polytechnic School -Military Academy- in 1873 to prepare military engineers, topographers and telegraphers, besides military officers. In July 1875, Justo Rufino Barrios closed the Pontifical University of San Carlos Borromeo and in its place founded the Central College of Law and the Central College of Medicine and Pharmacy which formed the National University of Guatemala. The government decreed that the teaching of Medicine had to be practical – as much as possible – and philosophical, with all the modern scientific theories. In 1877, the government found the Western College of Law in Quetzaltenango and in 1879 founded the National Library.