394 Linnean Society. [May 24, 



hope to see more exhibited in the same good cause. Those who go 

 out in mathematical and classical honours are not compelled (like 

 non-reading men, as all others are called) to attend Professorial 

 lectures, and very few of them who remain after taking their B.A. 

 degree, attempt to take honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos, 

 Not without several meritorious exceptions, those who become 

 Fellows or Tutors of Colleges pay very little or no attention to the 

 natural sciences. Entirely ignorant of the position which these 

 deservedly occupy in the estimation of all who have learnt to com- 

 prehend their bearing upon the highest interests of mankind, they 

 are too apt to think and speak contemptuously of them. They are 

 no judges whatever how far they are calculated to discipline the 

 mind, in common with the other instruments ordinarily employed in 

 a just and liberal education. It would, perhaps, be out of place to 

 enter into details, and revert to various causes which have operated 

 in diminishing the hopes of those who have been desirous of seeing 

 the Natural Sciences assume the position to which they would be 

 found justly entitled as fruitful branches, when fairly engrafted upon 

 a general scheme of sound University education ; but I will just 

 allude to two obvious causes why the candidates for honours in the 

 Natural Sciences Tripos have hitherto been so few, scarcely 

 amounting to half a dozen annually. First, the examination is not 

 conducted on the plan so worthily adopted in regard to those who 

 compete for honours in Mathematics and Classics. If a board of 

 examiners or advisers appointed by the Senate, were to determine 

 the extent to which they consider candidates, whether for a pass 

 examination or for honours, ought to have become acquainted with 

 any particular science, which may be too vast in its general bearing 

 to be grasped within the limited period allotted to its culture, some- 

 thing like a definite standard for ascertaining the comparative merit 

 of students in each subject might be derived, and the different 

 Professors would be better prepared to instruct their classes, up to 

 such standard. It might then also be left as much or more to others 

 as to themselves to determine how far they had succeeded in doing 

 this. Secondly, the Natural Sciences Tripos will be little attractive 

 to many men of ability, until proficiency in Natural History shall be 

 allowed some weight as well as proficiency in Mathematics and 

 Classics, towards obtaining University rewards, whether Prizes in 

 Books or Medals, or in Scholarships and Fellowships. I may add, 

 that until our Professorships shall have been properly endowed, the 

 University is not likely to command the life-long services of a body 

 of men, proficients in their respective departments, and devoting their 



