TO THE NEW LAUNCH! 1 



THE Science Students of the University of Aberdeen 

 are to be congratulated on their initiative and enter- 

 prise in starting a magazine to be devoted to their 

 interests. It is badly needed. May it prosper and 

 become a factor making for progress. 



Old wine into old bottles and the new wine into 

 new ! The danger of bursting the old bottles by new 

 wine is, in an ancient university, not a very imminent 

 one, but that of wasting the new wine is. Assuredly 

 students of classical subjects in ancient universities 

 and students of new subjects in modern universities 

 have much to be thankful for ; but it is not, so I am 

 told, unalloyed bliss to be a classical student in a new 

 university, nor a purely honorary privilege to be a 

 science student in an old one. From a residential 

 experience of six universities, three old and three 

 new, I should judge Aberdeen to be the oldest, from 

 the price paid by the science student. 



It changes, I am told, rapidly, but its attitude 

 towards science does not change. Huxley's rectorial 

 address to the students of this university in 1874 

 before I was born will, I firmly believe, never be out 

 of date. I read it regularly to keep up with the 

 times. True we have a Faculty of Science now, a 

 little different from the one Huxley welcomed in 

 anticipation. The Commissioners in 1893 said, " Let 

 there be a Faculty of Science " and the Faculty of 



1 Written for the first number of The Crucible, May 1919. 



176 



