158 NATURAL SCIENCE. Sept., 



have led to useful interchange of thought in other ways. It is 

 important that the student should be familiar with shorthand before 

 beginning professional studies, for it helps him in every form of work. 

 It is much to be desired that shorthand should be made an extra 

 subject in the entrance examination. It needs but a limited and 

 short expenditure of time, and this is soon regained. It can, 

 however, be quickly acquired at any age. It is now taught at many 

 schools, but its subsequent use is not sufficiently encouraged. It 

 may seem strange that the value of this mode of simple writing — 

 quick, easy, and secure — should first be thus recognised by members 

 of the medical profession ; but it is noteworthy that in their hands its 

 use will probably have most direct influence on the welfare of others." 



Post-graduate Study and Research at Cambridge. 



The new statutes respecting " research " degrees have been 

 approved by the Senate of the University of Cambridge, and await 

 only the confirmation of her Majesty in Council. In the probable 

 event of the confirmation being obtained, the statutes will come into 

 operation at once. The persons who are to be eligible must be 

 twenty-one years of age at the time of their entry as " advanced 

 students," and they must reside in the University for six terms. 

 They must, in most cases, be graduates of a British or foreign 

 University; but, in " exceptional cases," persons devoid of a diploma 

 may be admitted on the presentation of evidence of special qualifica- 

 tion. This special qualification is to be considered by the Degree 

 Committee of the Special Board of Studies, with which the proposed 

 course of advanced study or research is most nearly connected. All 

 applicants must state the course or courses of advanced study or of 

 research which they intend to pursue. 



Here are the gates thrown widely open, and we have to look to 

 the appointed gatekeepers that the unfit do not enter. It is clear 

 enough that they will be thronged by persons seeking an easy degree 

 for commercial purposes : and we must look to the " special com- 

 mittees " for a stern rejection of those who come for degrees rather 

 than for work. It is most desirable that the large number of American 

 graduates who go over to Germany for advanced work under new 

 teachers should have the opportunity of coming to England : it is 

 equally desirable that Scotch graduates should be able to enter 

 English universities without having to pass again through an elemen- 

 tary mill ; and the new statutes make this possible. But the host 

 who have attended evening lectures and so forth have been clamouring 

 for degrees ; it is necessary that the strict letter of the statute 

 " exceptional cases " should be maintained. After residence for two 

 terms and pursuit of either " advanced study " or " research " the 

 student, under the new regulations, may either compete for certain 

 prescribed parts of the Tripos examinations, or may present the results 



