2 INTRODUCTION 



had to be communicants of the Church of England, and the 

 undergraduate coming up in, say, 1910 had to satisfy his examiners 

 not only in his knowledge of classical languages but also had to 

 show that he had some knowledge of Archdeacon William Paley's 

 book on Evidences of Christianity. The latter examination was in 

 force till 1927, when it was brought to the notice of the university 

 authorities that many undergraduates did not in fact read Paley's 

 Evidences but instead studied a little crib of them. Many of the 

 more sceptical dons in the university were in favour of retaining 

 the examination and ensuring that all undergraduates should 

 be made to study Paley's Evidences most carefully, " For in this 

 way," they said, " the student will be forced to realise just how 

 weak the evidence in favour of Christianity really is." This 

 argument was not upheld and in 1927 another piece of tradition was 

 abandoned. 



Many present-day undergraduates seem to imagine that the 

 various subjects they study have existed as such, if not for 

 eternity, then at least from time immemorial. They are surprised 

 to learn that many of the chairs and examinations only came into 

 existence over the last half-century. In the table below I have 

 selected a few of the dates at which various chairs became 

 established at Cambridge. It will be seen that the subjects of 

 Theology and Medicine are very ancient whilst German, French 

 and English are relatively modern. 



Establishment of Chairs at Cambridge 



1502 2 Chairs of Divinity 



1540 Civil Law, Physic, Hebrew, Greek 



1634 Arabic 



1683 Moral Philosophy 



1684 Philosophy 



1702 Organic Chemistry 



1704 Astronomy 



1707 Anatomy 



1724 History 



1727 Botany 



1866 Zoology 



1869 Fine Art 



1909 German 



