2 NATURAL SCIENCE. j AN ., 



the vested interests of colleges are connected, not with education, but 

 with education as known in the boarding-house trade. Moreover, the 

 most important duty of the delegacy will be the selection of the 

 persons who are to work for the new degree. That can be done 

 satisfactorily only by the representatives of the different departments 

 of study — in fact, by the Boards of Faculties. 



Next we think that it is a great blunder to include under the 

 new provisions " courses of special study." This is merely to open 

 wide the avenues to an ordinary degree. If a man is competent 

 to earn the distinction of a degree by a special course of study, 

 he is competent to attain the degree in the ordinary way by 

 reading for honours in one of the final schools. If the statute is 

 intended simply to make it possible for men to obtain an equivalent 

 of the degree in honours without going through an undergraduate 

 career in the ordinary fashion, the idea of research should not 

 have been connected with it at all. What the University should 

 have done is sufficiently plain. There is a certain learned pursuit 

 known as research, and most familiar in the natural sciences, 

 but equally possible in any subject. It demands special aptitude, 

 the guidance of those who are themselves investigators in its initial 

 stages, at least, and it results in definite additions to our knowledge. If 

 these additions, the results of research, are really additions to knowledge, 

 they should be published. What is wanted is that men who have 

 been taught at Oxford, at any university, or in any shape or form 

 whatever, should be able to come to Oxford and to say : " We desire, 

 and think we have the capacity, to pursue original investigation in 

 such and such a subject." It is then for the accredited representatives 

 of the subject in question to decide whether or no the offer be plausible. 

 If the candidates are accepted, it is for the University to give them 

 their opportunity. Next for the Boards of Faculties to decide after a 

 year, or what time they may deem necessary, whether or no it be worth 

 the candidate's while to pursue his work. Finally, when the student 

 has finished his piece of work and prepared it for publication, it is 

 again for the Boards to decide, with the aid of a specialist where 

 necessary, whether or no the definite addition to knowledge made by 

 the candidate be of an order entitling him to be distinguished by a 

 degree. 



And this leads to our last point. Such a degree would be a dis- 

 tinction different in kind from B.A. Or M.A., and it should be a 

 different degree. We think, ourselves, that it should be B.Sc, and 

 that if a bachelor of science continues to make additions to knowledge 

 at Oxford or elsewhere it should be within the power of the Boards of 

 Faculties, upon their own initiation or after his application, to 

 recommend the university to make him a doctor of science. And 

 the degree of Doctor of Science of the University of Oxford should be 

 a sign to all the world of high capacity for research and of very con- 

 siderable achievement in research. 



