June 29, 1893J 



NA TURE 



201 



could they encourage new studies, which could never 

 lead those who were following thera to any great pecuniary 

 rewards, although they might lead them to the rewards of 

 learning. He thought that was a great problem. 

 This year they had an examination in Oriental lan- 

 guages. There was one candidate for it ; they had four 

 examiners, and the cost of that examination, he supposed, 

 was ^50 or £fio to the University, which was perfectly 

 right. It was just those studies which could not pay 

 their way, which could never be supported without the 

 help of endowments. He did not think the problem was 

 so serious as it might seem at first. Two years ago, 

 when his predecessor. Dr. Butler, resigned his office, he 

 pointed out some of the needs of the University. Dr. 

 Butler's clear and lucid statement brought forth one 

 magnificent gift and nothing more. He (the speaker) in 

 his turn, in the first year of his office, sent forth " a 

 bitter cry " of the needs of the University. Yet that 

 bitter cry brought forth nothing. Did it seem possible 

 that after all a general cry might not be specially 

 efficacious, while a request for special help might serve for 

 a cry ? He was happy to say that this seemed at last to 

 solve the problem of how they could develop the newer 

 studies with the help of those outside who were willing to 

 support them. The engineering school had, by the labours 

 of Prof. Ewing and Mr. Horace Darwin, received money, 

 which he hoped would carry it on sufficiently. He be- 

 lieved so ancient an institution as the Observatory of 

 Cambridge was going to ask for a new telescope to carry 

 on its work. That being so, it seemed that partially at 

 least the problem was solved. The problem concerning 

 agricultural science had been solved by the liberal aid of 

 the County Councils. Those bodies had come to their 

 aid in the most generous manner, and given them 

 enough to carry on their work for at least some years. 

 He hoped, as he said before, they would see their way, 

 not merely to maintain and develop those old institutions 

 which had been from all times the glory of Cambridge, 

 but also to carry on those newer studies and newer de- 

 velopments which would keep them in touch with the 

 nation, and make them remembered for all times, and 

 which, whatever developments might arise elsewhere, 

 would make Cambridge one of our greatest centres of 

 educational life. 



In proposing the " Health of the Masterand Fellows," the 

 Right Hon. T. H. Huxley, who was enthusiastically re- 

 ceived, said he was charged with a very pleasant duty, and 

 one which could be happily performed without eithergifts of 

 eloquence or even those of voice, in which unhappily he was 

 at present sadly deficient, and he would not be withdrawn 

 from the simple discharge of that duty by the invitation 

 which had been addressed to him by a previous speaker to 

 enter upon the field of controversy. In proper time and 

 place he imagined that he could hardly be said to have 

 shown any unwillingness for the discussion of contro- 

 verted questions, but in his judgment they were extremely 

 inappropriate and out of place in a meeting of that kind, 

 and he desired absolutely to abstain from that, and to 

 confine himself to the business in hand, which was of a 

 far more pleasant, and, he ventured to think, more profit- 

 able nature : it was to propose to them the health of the 

 Master and Fellows of that College. All those who 

 were present would understand the gratitude which they 

 all felt for the generous and gracious hospitality which 

 they had shown to them on that occasion, but it was 

 a traditional hospitality, and it went back to the time 

 when that important corporation, of which they were the 

 present representatives, extended their hospitality to 

 Wil'iam Harvey, whose name and fame they were met 

 to celebrate. He did not know whether the Master and 

 Fellows of that time were aware of what they were doing 

 in trainingand disciplining that young man — boy, indeed, 

 to them — to make the best use of the faculties with which 



NO. 1235, VOL. 48] 



he was endowed, but he thought it lay to their credit that 

 from that time to this, the hospitality which they extended 

 to science — to biological science especially, and to that 

 branch of it which was called the science of medicine 

 very particularly — that that had been continued with 

 unbroken openness and readiness. It was for that reason, 

 he thought, that the large proportion of persons present 

 in that room who were devoted to scientific studies would 

 with the greatest possible cordiality drink the toast which 

 he had to propose. For in this matter Gonville and 

 Caius College occupied a position as isolated as it was 

 honourable. He was aware that the studies of biological 

 sciences, and more especially those which had relation to 

 medicine, could not be cleared of the accusation then 

 made against them of utility to mankind. He admitted to 

 the full the charge that was made against those studies, 

 but the present showed, and the future would show more 

 strongly, that quite apart from the bearing of direct 

 utility, it must be regarded as a happy instinct, if not as 

 a purpose of intelligence, which had led that College for 

 these 300 years to cherish and to promote those studies. 

 It was on that ground they who were so deeply interested 

 in its pursuits felt that they owed a debt of gratitude to 

 the College, and he knew of no reason, except the fact 

 that he once took an active part in those biological 

 matters, which had led to his selection as proposer of the 

 health of the College to them on that occasion. Sir 

 James Paget had fully and exhaustively told them, in 

 that admirable language which he had always at com- 

 mand, the great claims of Harvey upon their respect 

 and veneration. He had justly told them that Harvey 

 regarded himself, not merely as a discoverer, but as 

 a propounder and champion of a new method. Dr. 

 Venn was good enough to tell him before the dinner of 

 a fact of which he (the speaker) was entirely ignorant : 

 that before Harvey's time that College possessed what 

 was called an " anatomer," a gentleman whose duties ap- 

 peared to have been to dissect bodies, which were given 

 over to him and others, to give the students of the College a 

 practical contact with the nature of things. It was in that re- 

 spect that modern science differed from ancient science ; it 

 was in that respect that Harvey was essentially modern. It 

 was therefore to the wise provision of the founders of that 

 College that they owed the beginning of that movement 

 commenced in this country by Gilbert, followed up in 

 Italy by Galileo, followed up conscientiously here by 

 Harvey himself, which had led to the great modern de- 

 velopment of scientific culture. They trusted that the 

 hospitality which had hitherto been extended by that 

 College to purely scientific investigations would be con- 

 tinued upon the lines laid down by Harvey. It might be 

 that Harveys existed among them now, and the only 

 thing they had to hope for, and to wish for was, that those 

 Harveys of the future might not be compelled, as the 

 Harvey of the past, to obtain a higher scientific training 

 by going to the University at Padua. They hoped that 

 in this University men would have the opportunity of 

 obtaining the highest scientific culture which was to be 

 given. That he understood was the object and purpose 

 and desire of the Master and Fellows of that College, in 

 inviting persons like himself to take part in that great 

 celebration ; he presumed they wished them to under- 

 stand that they recognised Science as a fundamental 

 branch of human culture, and that they would do what in 

 them lay to promote that happy commemoration to which 

 he ventured to allude. 



The toast was drunk with enthusiasm. 



The Master briefly returned thanlcs, and stated that it 

 had given them very sincere pleasure to entertain so 

 illustrious an assembly, and expressed his deep regret 

 that Sir George Paget was not with them. 



The Rev. B. H. Drury proposed the health of the 

 younger members of the College, saying that they were 



