I04 



NA TURE 



iDec. 



the final lists were first printed and distributed, the names 

 of those who had received honorary degrees being specially 

 marked, so that by simply erasing them the true order of 

 merit of the other candidates could be obtained. The 

 division of the first class into wranglers and senior optimes 

 was first made in 1753. 



It was in the third of the above periods, that is, between 

 1763 and 1779, that the Senate House examination was 

 gradually gaining ground upon the schools in determining 

 a candidate's final place on the list. By means of their acts 

 and opponencies the candidates were divided by the 

 Moderators into eight classes, each class being arranged in 

 alphabetical order ; their subsequent position in the class 

 ■was then determined by the Senate House examination. The 

 first two classes comprised those who were expected to be 

 wranglers, the next four included the other candidates for 

 honours, and the last two consisted of poll-men only. The 

 classes were examined separately and viva voce. During 

 this period it became the custom to require written 

 answers to the questions. The examiner gave out the 

 questions to the class one by one, giving out a fresh 

 question as soon as he saw that any one had finished the 

 last. The problem papers, which were confined to the 

 first two classes, were given to the candidates in writing, 

 so that they had the whole paper before them at once. 



It may be of interest to give a more detailed account of 

 the exercises in the schools during this period, when both 

 the exercises and the examination were in full operation 

 and vigour. The Moderators, having received from the 

 tutors of the Colleges a list of the students who were 

 candidates for honours at the next examination, fixed a 

 day in the Lent term on which each was to keep his act, 

 and assigned to him three opponents. The Respondent, 

 or " Act " as he was then called, selected three subjects 

 which he proposed to maintain, and submitted them to 

 the Moderator, who communicated them to his three 

 opponents, designating them opponentiuin piiinus, seciin 

 diis, or tci-tius. On the day fixed for the Act the respondent 

 read his thesis in the schools in the presence of the 

 Moderator. The first opponent then mounted the box 

 opposite to that of the respondent and below that of the 

 Moderator, and joined issue with him, opposing the thesis 

 by eight arguments of syllogistic form. The respondent 

 replied to each in turn, and when an argument had been 

 disposed of, the Moderator called lor the next in the words 

 P7-obes allter. When the disputation had continued long 

 enough, the Moderator dismissed the opponent with such 

 words as " Bene disputasti" or " Optiine disputasti," or 

 " Opliiiie qiiidtin dispiitasti" as the case might be. The 

 second and third opponents (who had to oppose the thesis 

 by five and three arguments respectively) entered the box 

 successively, and after disputing were dismissed in the 

 same manner, the whole performance lasting between one 

 hour and two hours. The respondent himself was dis- 

 missed with some such phrase as " Satis et optiine qtiidciii 

 tiio officio functus es." Such compliments gave rise to the 

 clasbification into senior and junior optimes. In general, 

 " Optiine quidem" was the highest praise expected even 

 by future wranglers. The distinguished men of the year 

 appeared eight times in the schools, twice as Respondents 

 and twice in each grade of opponency.- 



^ Wordsworth, Scltotte Acadcmiop. {\Z-n), p. 37. A specimen of an argu- 

 r, ;t, expressed in schulastic lortn, on the question, " Recte statuit Paleius de 

 Viitute," is given by Wordsworth on p. 39, and the full system of eight 

 arguments tin a disputation of 1784) on the question. "Solis parallaxis ope 

 Veneris intra solem conspiciendje a methodo Halleii recte determinari 

 potest," is reproduced in detail by Mr. Ball in the appendix to the sketch 

 already referred to. In the latter part of the last century it seems tj have 

 been usual for two uf the questions to relate to mathematics _ and the 

 third to moral philosophy. Wordsworth mentions that in 1710-11 it needed 

 all the influence of an enthusiastic Proctor and Moderator to induce a^ttldent 

 to keep his act in mathematical questi ns, but that by the middle of the 

 century the examinatijn was so far crystallising into the Mtit/tematicat'Xxt\iOS 

 that a questionist was enabled by academical authority in 1750 to resist the 

 demands o£a& Moderator to produce one metaphysical question, he having 

 already disnnguished himself in mathematical argument. In the early Cam- 

 bridge University Calendars the three questions given as specimens are : (1) 

 '• Recte statuit Newt nus inseptima sua sectione Libri primi" ; (2) " Iridis 

 primariai et secundaria; Phenomena solvi possunt ere Principiis Opticis " ; (3) 

 " Recte statuit Lockius de Qualitatibus Corp jrum." 



The final establishment of the Mathematical Tripos 

 dates, as remarked by Mr. Ball, from 1779. By the 

 regulations agreed to by the Senate in that year, the 

 Moderators of the previous year were added to the reg- 

 ular staff of e.xaminers, and the system of brackets was in- 

 troduced. The examination lasted three days (the last 

 of which was devoted to moral philosophy), and on the 

 fourth day a class-list, called " the Brackets," was issued, 

 in which those candidates who were nearly equal were 

 bracketed together. One day was devoted to the " exam- 

 ination of the brackets." by the result of which the names 

 in each bracket were placed in order of merit. There 

 was also a power of challenging, by which a candidate 

 who was dissatisfied with his bracket might challenge any 

 other candidate he pleased to a fresh examination ; ' but 

 it seldom happened that any one rose above or fell 

 below his bracket. From 1779 onwards the examination 

 slowly and surely grew in importance, and the exercises 

 became of less account each year, till they were finally 

 discontinued by the Moderators in 1839. Two years 

 later they were formally abolished by the Senate. 



The following account of the Senate House examination 

 in 1802 is abridged from the Cambridge University Calen- 

 dar of that year : — " On the Monday morning, a little 

 before eight o'clock, the students, generally about a 

 hundred, enter the Senate House, preceded by a Master 

 of Arts, who on this occasion is styled the father of the 

 College to which he belongs. On two pillars at the en- 

 trance of the Senate House are hung the Classes [i.e. the 

 eight classes into which the candidates have been divided 

 by the exercises in the schools ; and a paper denoting the 

 hours of examination of those who are thought most 

 competent to contend for Honours. 



" Immediately after the University clock has struck 

 eight, the names are called over, and the absentees being 

 marked, are subject to certain fines. The classes to be 

 examined are called out, and proceed to their appointed 

 tables, where they find pens, ink, and paper provided in 

 great abundance. In this manner, with the utmost order 

 and regularity, two-thirds of the young men are set to 

 work within less than five minutes after the clock has 

 struck eight. There are three chief tables, at which six 

 examiners preside. At the first, the senior Moderator of 

 the present year and the junior Moderator of the preceding 

 year. At the second, the junior Moderator of the present 

 and the senior Moderator of the preceding year. At the 

 third, two Moderators of the year previous to the two last, 

 or two examiners appointed by the Senate. The two first 

 tables are chiefly allotted to the six first classes ; the third 

 or largest to the 01 ttoXXoi." After describing the manner of 

 reading out the questions, the account proceeds : — " The 

 examiners are not seated, but keep moving round the 

 tables, both to judge how matters proceed and to deliver 

 their questions at proper intervals. The examination, 

 which embraces arithmetic, algebra, fiuxions, the doctrine 

 of infinitesimals and increments, geometry, trigonometry, 

 mechanics, hydrostatics, optics, and astronomy, in all their 

 various gradations, is varied according to circumstances : 

 no one can anticipate a question, for in the course of five 

 minutes he may be dragged from Euclid to Newton, from 

 the humble arithmetic of Bonnycastle to the abstruse 

 analytics of Waring. While this examination is proceed- 

 ing at the three tables between the hours of eight and 

 nine, printed problems are delivered to each person of the 

 first and second classes ; these he takes with him to any 

 window he pleases, where there are pens, ink, and paper 

 prepared for his operations." At nine o'clock the papers 

 had to be given up, and half an hour was allowed for 

 breakfast. At 9.30 all returned and were examined in the 

 same way till eleven, when the Senate House was again 

 cleared. An interval of two hours then took place. At 



^ In such cases the Moderators called to their assistance the Proctors or 

 other Masters of Arts. About 1770 any Master of Arts was at liberty to 

 examine any of the candidates. Mr. Ball is of opinion that this right was 

 not insisted on after 1785. 



