l895 . NOTES AND COMMENTS. 3 



Research Degrees at Cambridge. 



The Cambridge movement for the establishment of Researcli 

 Degrees is running a course parallel with the movement at Oxford. 

 As at Oxford, a large body of graduates approve in a vague way of a 

 proposal that the University should take cognisance of and afford 

 opportunities to a new class of students ; but there is the same con- 

 fusion of aim, and resulting confusion of suggestions. It is worth 

 repeating in other words part of what we said in the preceding 

 paragraph. There are many men, trained for the most part at provin- 

 cial or colonial universities, who have the desire and, some of them, 

 the capacity to undertake research work. At present, many of them 

 go to Germany, many of them, from lack of opportunity, abandon 

 their hopes of advancing knowledge. It is desirable and urgent that 

 the two great English Universities should open their doors to such men 

 without making them, as at present, begin from the beginning, and 

 labour through a second undergraduate career. The Universities 

 should select these men, prove their capacity for research, and, after 

 they have accomplished certain definite pieces of work, sit in judg- 

 ment on the quality of their additions to knowledge, and in satisfac- 

 tory cases give them a degree which should be a stamp of their special 

 abilities and achievements. It may be a matter of opinion whether 

 or no only graduates of Oxford and of Cambridge, or of other uni- 

 versities, should be accepted as research students ; our own opinion 

 is that, if the new degree be confined strictly to those who have 

 shown this special capacity, their previous career is a matter of no 

 moment. Keep up the standard of the special degree: let it be 

 clearly understood that it is to be a definite sign of special qualities, 

 and not of mere attainments, and then let all the world come and try. 

 After a very short time of trial, a competent board will be able to 

 weed out the greater number of those who have deceived themselves 

 as to their abilities in this direction ; but even those who have escaped 

 this weeding after a short trial must be given to understand that 

 a high measure of success is necessary. 



Unfortunately, at Cambridge, as at Oxford, there are signs that a 

 definite and intelligible course like this may not be adopted, but that 

 by slumping " special courses of study" and so forth with research, the 

 new degree will be available for persons whose only difference from the 

 ordinary undergraduate will be, possibly, a greater age, but certainly 

 an absence of the ordinary university training. To do this is merely 

 to overthrow the university system, in response to the clamours of 

 University Extension students and their like. That may or may not 

 be an excellent purpose, but it has nothing to do with research. 



A Central Zoological Bureau. 

 In our last number we gave details concerning a new Zoological 

 Record, in the form of an Author-index on separately printed cards, 



b 2 



