62 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL 



Tho Syndicate reported February 27th, 1SG9. They 

 called attention to the Report of the Royal Commis- 

 sion of 1S50. The Commissioners had " prominently 

 urged the importance of cultivating a knowledge of 

 the great Branches of Experimental Physirs in iho 

 University"; and in page lls of their Report, after 

 commending the manner in whirh the snhjcct of 

 Physical Optics is studied in the University, and 

 pointing out that " there is, perhaps, no public institu- 

 tion where it is better represented or prosecuted with 

 more zeal and success in the way of original research/' 

 they had stated that " no reason can be assigned why 

 other great branches of Natural Science should not 

 become equally objects of attention, or why Cambridge 

 should not become a great school of physical and 

 experimental, as it is already of mathematical and 

 classical, instruction." 



And again the Commissioners remark : " In a 

 University so thoroughly imbued with the mathe- 

 matical spirit, physical study might be expected to 

 assume within its precincts its highest and severest 

 tone, be studied under more abstract forms, with 

 more continual reference to mathematical laws, and 

 therefore with better hope of bringing them one by 

 one under the domain of mathematical investigation 

 than elsewhere." 



After calling attention to these statements the 

 Report of the Syndicate then continues : 



" In the scheme of Examination for Honours in 

 the Mathematical Tripos approved by Grace of the 

 Senate on the 2nd of June, 1868, Heat, Electricity and 

 Magnetism, if not introduced for the first time, had a 



