76 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL 



Tripos would not find tiino for attendance at tho 

 laboratory, was justified. One of the weaknesses of 

 our Cambridge plan has been tho divorce between 

 Mathematics and experimental work, encouraged 

 by our system of examinations. Experimental 

 knowledge is supposed not to be needed for tho 

 Mathematical Tripos; the Mathematics permitted in 

 the Natural Sciences Tripos are very simple; thus 

 it came about that few men while reading for tho 

 Mathematical Tripos attended the laboratory, and 

 this unfortunate result was intensified by the action 

 of the University in 1877-78, when the regulations 

 for the Mathematical Tripos were again altered.* 



Still there were pupils eager and willing to work, 

 though they were chiefly men who had already taken 

 their B.A. degree, and who wished to continue 

 Physical reading and research, even though it in- 

 volved "a considerable amount of dull labour not 

 altogether attractive." My own work there began in 

 187C, and it may be interesting if I recall my remin- 

 iscences of that time. 



The first experiments I can recollect related to the 

 measurement of electrical resistance. I well remember 



Under tho new regulations Phytics waa removed from tho first 

 part of tho Tripos and formed, with tho more advanced part* of 

 Astronomy and Pure Mathematics, n part by it&clf, to which only tho 

 Wranglers were admitted. Thus the number of men encouraged to 

 read Physics was very limited. This pernicious system was altered 

 in the regulations at present in force, which came into action in 1892. 

 Part I. of the Mathematical Tripos now contains Heat, KJeinentary 

 Hydrodynamics and Sound, and the simpler paits of Electricity and 

 Magnetism, and candidates for this examination do come to the 

 laboratory, though not in very largo numbers. The more advanced 

 parts both of Mathematics and Physics are included in Pait II. 



