NATURE 



97 



THURSDAY, JUNK 6, 1872 



BAD GREEK OR GOOD GERMAN ? 



AN event occurred on Thursday last at Cambridge, 

 not in itself, perhaps, of imposing magnitude, but 

 yet fraught with very important consequences. For this 

 long while back an agitation has been going on with the 

 purpose of making Greek no longer absolutely essential 

 to the Previous Examination (or " Little Go," as it is 

 popularly called), but of allowing French or German, or 

 both, to be substituted for it at the option of the candi- 

 date. As any long-headed man might have foreseen, the 

 genuine scholarship and liberal intelligence of the Univer- 

 sity are in favour of such a change ; but the opposition has 

 been neither feeble nor silent. Discussion has abounded 

 more and more, and "fly-sheets'* have fallen like the 

 latter rain. The advocates of the change seem to have 

 been more or less governed by a dislike to many words, 

 and to have had large faith in the merits of their cause ; 

 their opponents, on the other hand, appear to have be- 

 lieved in the efficacy of much speaking, and in the effects 

 of arguments drawn from all quarters, and looking all 

 ways ; their papers and speeches, all put together, 

 form as pretty a piece of incoherence as may be found 

 in a literary day's march, and would have been a 

 perfect godsend to the great Skepsius when he wrote his 

 famous tract .In hoini)iihus mens absit. The reasons 

 indeed for making the change were so clear and cogent 

 that there seemed hardly any hope of its being accom- 

 plished. Yet by one of those freaks of fortune which are 

 met with even in the Universities, wisdom prevailed ; and 

 by the vote of the Senate on Thursday last, which will, in 

 all probability, be speedily ratified at a second meeting, 

 the student who desires to go out in an " honours " e.xami- 

 nation henceforth need not at his Little Go scratch up a 

 smattering of bad Greek, if he satisfies his examiner that 

 he possesses a real knowledge of French or German. 



We trust that the scientific workers at Cambridge will 

 take heart at this happy issue of the struggle, and gird up 

 their loins for the heavy task of introducing order and 

 system into the chaos in which the natural science studies 

 at Cambridge are now lost. Let them set to work at once, 

 and no longer wait for that Deus ex niachina of the 

 Royal Commission, who at present sit aloft, like the gods 

 in Tennyson's " Lotos Eaters," and of whom it might be 

 said, " Though their wheels are grinding finely, yet they 

 grind exceeding slow." 



The graduates of the University of London too might 

 do well to ponder over this result. It is one of the marks 

 of good tone at Cambridge to be very imperfectly ac- 

 quainted with the Metropolitan University, except so far 

 as its scholarships and examinerships are concerned ; 

 and accordingly it was stated more than once in the 

 course of the discussion, and used as an argument against 

 the proposed change, that the University of London had 

 recently refused to make Greek optional at its Matricula- 

 tion Examination. Our better informed readers are pro- 

 bably aware that the Senate, the real governing body of 

 the University, have the matter at this very moment 

 under their consideration, and, without wishing to fore- 



stall the future, we may presume to say that beyond 

 doubt a change will soon be made. It is perfectly true 

 that Convocation, in spite of the Report of its Annual 

 Committee, hesitated to recommend the change ; and this 

 seems to have led to the mistake of the Cambridge advo- 

 cates of bad Greek ; but it is well known that, as indeed 

 a sound knowledge of human nature would lead one to 

 expect would be the case, there is among the body of 

 graduates of the radical University, a mass of partly 

 rabid and partly stupid conservatism, which, if it had its 

 own way, would soon bring the University to ruin. 

 Happily the executive Senate, being for the most part 

 selected by the Crown, is wise and liberal, and is es- 

 pecially animated by the feeling that the University, if it 

 is to fulfil its function, must grow with the growth of time, 

 and change with changing things. 



It is not a little to the credit of the older University of 

 Cambridge that she should have been actually the first to 

 remove one more of the old-fashioned swaddling clothes, 

 which have been checking the development of youthful 

 science, and we trust it is an earnest of still greater 

 changes which she means to take in hand. Science has 

 been too long at that old University a sort of blind Sam- 

 son, bound with many cords, and serving chiefly to make 

 sport for mocking Philistines of the classical and mathe- 

 matical tribes. It is time his cords were loosed, and his 

 strength made use of for the general advancement of the 

 University. 



OUR NATIONAL INDUSTRIES 



IT is believed by many scientific men that research is 

 all but dead in England. Whether we confess it or 

 not, England, so far as the advancement of knowledge 

 goes, is but a third or fourth-rate power. It is not our 

 present purpose to incjuire into the causes of all this ; 

 whether, as some say, it is because our professors are so 

 rich, or whether, as others affirm, because all arrange- 

 ments for the increase of knowledge are so poor, but 

 rather to call attention to the certain influence of this on 

 the wealth — let us put it ia the most so.-did manner — of 

 the nation in the future. 



In this inquiry we find to our hand, in a recent num- 

 ber of the Binnint^liain Morning News, an article on the 

 future extension of Birmingham industries, by Mr. George 

 Gore, whose important researches are well known. We 

 know no one better qualified than Mr. Gore to discuss the 

 subject, and no town where it is more important that the 

 subject should be ventilated, for Birmingham his received 

 much from and has given nothing to original scientific 

 research ; but the conclusions to be drawn from the article 

 are in no way limited to Birmingham. 



In this article Mr. Gore first considers by what general 

 means the chief trades of Birmingham were first originated 

 and improved ; and then discusses whether we can by 

 similar means, applied in a more effectual manner, lay 

 the foundation of other new trades and improvements. 

 Mr. Gore writes : — 



" Let us consider German-silver and its manufac- 

 ture. That substance is an alloy of copper, zinc, and 

 nickel; it owes its peculiar whiteness or 'silver-like' 

 appearance to the latter metal, and cannot be made 

 without it ; it is certain, therefore, that by whatever means 



