UNIVERSITY COMMISSIONS 187 



lectual activity, and that nothing- is permitted to 

 prevent the university from being in a position by 

 the session 1920-21 to compete on equal terms with 

 the other three. 



It will still be necessary to see that the teaching 

 provided for the new degree is strengthened. As 

 regards chemistry, the greatest need is that students 

 should be able to get within the university training 

 in experimental physics and mathematics more suited 

 to their requirements than the courses in natural 

 philosophy and mathematics provided for the honours 

 M.A., as it is recognised that it is not essential to 

 follow the traditional order of classical mathematics 

 to give the student a practical working knowledge 

 for the purposes of engineering and chemistry. For 

 those who wish to become experimental rather than 

 mathematical scientists, in which mathematics is a 

 tool rather than a branch of philosophy, an entirely 

 different and more practical curriculum is essential 

 and desirable. 



The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have 

 agreed, at Mr Fisher's suggestion, to co-operate 

 with the Government in setting up Commissions of 

 Enquiry into their affairs ; and in Scotland, though 

 there is no comparison, the feeling everywhere is 

 gaining ground that a thorough reconstruction of 

 the universities is the essential first step towards 

 progress. 



Science has been subjected to so much misrepre- 

 sentation and depreciation by the champions of 

 ancient studies, no doubt much of it on perfectly 

 honest, if mistaken, grounds by the victims of those 

 studies, that, in criticising them, I must not give you 

 the impression that I am dominated with the same 

 feelings of animosity and distrust to them as they 

 have shown for the last century towards science. At 

 various periods of the world's history great move- 



