vii WORK AT MANCHESTER 185 



distinguished Professor of Geology in the University ; 

 Professor Arthur Schuster, now one of the foremost of 

 English physicists ; and last, but not least, my emi- 

 nent friend Osborne Reynolds, facile princeps among 

 scientific engineers of the day. 



At the first meeting of the University Court, the 

 most interesting question which was debated was 

 whether Latin and Greek should be made compulsory 

 for all degrees. It was proposed by the Board of 

 Studies, consisting of the professors and teachers 

 in the constituent colleges, and supported by the 

 University Council, that for candidates for Science 

 degrees an examination in modern languages should 

 be allowed in the place of that in Latin and Greek, 

 but on this stubborn question of ancient versus modern 

 languages the final resolution could not be passed 

 without the test of a division. A report in The Times 

 of April 1 5th, 1881, of this matter, adds that perhaps 

 the argument most decisive with the Court on this 

 question was given in the words of Professor Roscoe, 

 who said "that they had to consider the large number 

 of persons who came to the Owens College for special 

 instruction, more especially for engineering and 

 mathematics, but who had never been at any school 

 where Latin was taught. These were the men who 

 carried off the best engineering prizes, and for them it 

 was that this door had wisely been kept open. They 

 must not be guided by what Oxford and Cambridge 

 had done, but by what was good for their own 

 district, and by what was advisable at the present 

 moment. Let them remember how large was the 

 number of men such as he had described in their 

 neighbourhood, and how flourishing were the mathe- 

 matical schools. And then let them say whether they 

 could cut off these schools and scholars from 



