1864. | Science in the Provinces. 709 
aid of the microscope is largely used; and in summer, excursions to 
a greater or lesser distance into the country are taken, at average 
intervals of three weeks, on which occasion prizes are offered, which 
are calculated to stimulate the taste for botanical pursuits. ‘These 
prizes consist of books of the value of half-a-guinea, of which several 
are offered at each excursion, viz. for the collection, naming, and 
arrangement in natural orders of the largest number of species in 
flower ; for the largest illustration of some given natural order; and. 
for the simple collection of the largest number of species in flower. 
Tn addition to these, numerous prizes are offered for collections to be 
made during the year, which have met with the most encouraging 
success. Nor should it be omitted to be mentioned, that twice has 
this club held high festival in the magnificent St. George’s Hall, on 
which occasions extraordinary exhibitions of the most varied and most 
valuable natural objects have been made, and certainly forming the 
most remarkable natural history festivals which it has ever been our 
lot to witness. 
The ‘Cambridge University Natural Science Society, which has 
sprung from a University Club, is a new Society, and if we may 
judge from the earnest spirit of the address of its President, Mr. C. 
W. Villiers Bradford, it is one which is destined to do considerable 
service. The subject of the position of Natural Science in the 
University curriculum, and the encouragement given to its prosecu- 
tion, is brought forward in a prominent manner. The Natural 
Science Tripos standard was raised in 1861, so that a first class in 
that Tripos was equivalent to the position of a Wrangler. The numbers 
availing themselves of the Tripos, however, have been very small, 
owing to the little encouragement offered by the University and 
Colleges. Out of twenty-two University prizes, not one is devoted to 
any department of Natural Science; and out of the seventeen colleges 
which compose this commonwealth of learning, only three offer any 
pecuniary inducement to scientific study, viz. Caius, Sidney Sussex, and 
Downing Colleges ; while no college has ever yet given a fellowship 
for Natural Science alone. At Oxford this, however, is the case, and 
members of both Universities are allowed to compete. So long, there- 
fere, as the colleges of Cambridge refuse to extend to science that 
stimulus to energetic work which every other branch of study possesses, 
we may predicate for the Natural Science school but a struggle for 
existence there. Few men who go to a University can afford to spend 
their school and college days in competing for an empty honour, 
while the same time and labour differently bestowed may ensure a 
provision for the early years of a profession; but when Fellowships 
are given equally for science, mathematics, and classics, possibly even 
a greater competition may be expected in the former case than in the 
two latter, and perhaps the Fellows of colleges foresee this. The 
University prizes are restricted in their object; the Scholarships 
also are but partially free from similar trammels, but the Fellowships 
are entirely in the hands of the Masters and Fellows of colleges. 
But, although the colleges show so little favour to science, there are 
six Professors of high reputation, and also well-stocked geological, 
