NA TURE 



{Feb. 24, 1887 



of "keeping Acts and Opponencies." These, as Mr. 

 Glaisher has explained, were formerly the only public 

 exhibitions of students' merits in the University ; "and, 

 possibly, were still considered in the University as more 

 important than would be gathered from Mr. Glaisher's 

 account. The three Opponents met to take tea and to 

 arrange their arguments ; the Act also was invited, with 

 an intimation that he was not to stop long. I have seen 

 the " Schools," in which the disputations were held, quite 

 filled with undergraduates of all Colleges, who came to 

 listen to the disputations, or rather quibbles, held in the 

 Latin language, of the argumentative quarrel. If my 

 memory is correct, each of the undergraduates (selected, 

 I believe, by the Tiloderators) appeared twice in the cha- 

 racter of "Act " (asserting the correctness of some doc- 

 trine in the printed books), and twice or more in the 

 character of " Opponent " (denying that correctness). 

 The President of the School was one of the Moderators. 

 The assertion of the Moderator that the argument failed 

 was given by the words " Probes aliter." The discussion 

 was usually closed by a complimentary address of the 

 Moderator, as, for instance, " Magno ingenio argumenta 

 tua et construxisti et defendisti." I do not think that 

 the form lasted many years after this time. 



At length came the October Term, the last term (the 

 tenth) for undergraduates, of which I remember only one 

 characteristic, namely, that in the College Hall a separate 

 dinner-table was established for the " Ouestionists" (as 

 those were called "-ho were to proceed to the B.A. degree 

 in January). To this table all Ouestionists were removed 

 from whatever tables they previously occupied. Among 

 others, the "Scholars" of the College (Trinity) were 

 removed from their table, where they had formed agree- 

 able acquaintances, to a collection of strangers, naturally 

 disagreeable to the " Scholars." We much disliked this 

 change. I think that in this term the character of the 

 College lectures was changed almost entirely to prob- 

 lems and questions ; some of them in the evening, in the 

 College rooms of one of the Fellows. 



.A.t length arrived the Monday morning on which the 

 examination for the B.A. degree was to begin. A breakfast 

 was given by the " Father" of the College (one of the 

 Fellows of the College) in the College Combination 

 Room, and then we were all marched in a body to the 

 Senate House and placed in the hands of the Moderators. 

 How the " candidates for honours " were separated from 

 the 01 77oXXoi I do not know. I presume that the Acts 

 and Opponencies had something to do with it. The 

 honour-candidates were divided into six groups ; and of 

 these Nos. 1 and 2 (united), Nos. 3 and 4 (united), and 

 Nos. 5 and 6 (united), received the questions of one 

 Moderator. No. i, Nos. 2 and 3 (united), Nos. 4 and 5 

 (united), and No. 6, received those of the other Mode- 

 rator. The Moderators were reversed on alternate days. 

 There were no printed question-papers : each examiner 

 liad his bound manuscript papers of questions, and he 

 read out his first question ; each of the examinees 

 who thought himself able proceeded to write out his 

 answer, and then orally called out " Done." The Mode- 

 rator, as soon as he thought proper, proceeded with 

 another question. 1 think there was only one course of 

 questions on each day (terminating before 3 o'clock, for 

 the Hall dinner). 



The examination continued to Friday mid-day. On 

 Saturday morning, about S o'clock, the list of honours 

 (manuscript) was nailed on the door of the Senate 

 House. 



The ceremonies and customs of conferring degrees in the 

 middle of the day, I believe, have not been altered. The 

 Vice-Chancellor was seated in the centre of the Senate 

 House. The Father of that College of which the Senior 

 Wrangler was a member led him to the Vice-Chancellor. 

 The roar of acclamation from the undergraduates in the 

 galleries of the Senate House, to welcome a favourite 



Senior Wrangler, will not be forgotten by one who has 

 heard it. The Father presented him with the words : 

 " Dignissime Domine, Domine Procancellarie, et tota 

 Universitas, prKsento vobis hunc juvenem, quern scio 

 tarn moribus quam doctrina esse idoneum ad responden- 

 dum Oua3stioni ; idque tibi fide mea prresto, totique 

 Universitati.'' The candidate knelt before the A'ice- 

 Chancellor, who pressed the candidate's hands between 

 his own, and answered : " Auctoritate mihi commissa, 

 admitto te ad respondendum Ouaestioni, in nomine 

 Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti." I am not able to say 

 how much of this was repeated for each candidate. Then 

 followed some petty cjuibbles with some Master of Arts 

 concerning questions which nobody professed to under- 

 stand, but which were inessential. The undergraduate 

 gown was then changed for a B.A. gown. 



On a certain day following, at a Congregation of the 

 Senate, the list of names of those who were thus admitted 

 was read to the Vice-Chancellor, who (as I understood) 

 solemnly recognised the rights of the first to the privileges 

 of Bachelor of Arts, and to each of those following only 

 repeated the words " et ei," finally declaring that they were 

 " actualiter in Artibus Baccalaureos." 



It is evident that there must have been some relation 

 between the various ranks which no longer exists ; and, 

 in particular, that the QucEstio was once important, and is 

 now totally lost. And connections existed between the 

 Colleges and the University which can scarcely be traced 

 at the present day. 



I now advert to the mathematical subjects of study and 

 examination. 



In the October Term, 1S19, the only books on pure 

 mathematics were : Euclid generally ; " Algebra," by 

 Dr. Wood (formerly Tutor, but, in 1 819, Master, of 

 St. John's College), Vince's "Fluxions" and Dealtry's 

 " Fluxions," Woodhouse's and other Trigonometries. 

 Not a whisper passed through the University generally 

 on the subject of differential calculus, although some 

 papers (subsequently much valued) on that subject had 

 been written by Mr. Woodhouse, Fellow of Caius College ; 

 but their style was repulsive, and they never took hold of 

 the University. Whewell's " Mechanics" (1S19) contains 

 a few and easy applications of the differential calculus. 

 The books on applied mathematics were : Wood's " Me- 

 chanics," Whewell's " Mechanics," Wood's " Optics," 

 Vince's "Hydrostatics," Vince's "Astronomy," Wood- 

 house's " Plane Astronomy" (perhaps rather later); the 

 first book of Newton's " Principia." I do not remember 

 any others. These works were undoubtedly able ; and I 

 do not conceal my opinion that for the great proportion 

 of University students going into active life books con- 

 structed on the principles of those which I have cited were 

 more useful than those exclusively founded on the more 

 modern system. For those students who aimed at the 

 mastery of results — more difficult and (in the intellectual 

 sense) more important — the older books were quite in- 

 sufficient. 



More aspiring students read, and generally with much 

 care, several parts of Newton's " Principia," Book I. and 

 also Book III. (perhaps the noblest example of the geo- 

 metrical form of cosmical theory that the world has seen). 

 1 remember some questions from Book III. proposed in 

 the Senate House Examination, 1823. 



In the October Term, 1819, I went upto the University. 

 The works of Wood and \'ince, which I have mentioned, 

 still occupied the lecture-rooms. But a great change was 

 in preparation for the University course of mathematics. 

 During the great Continental war, the intercourse between 

 men of science in England and in France had been most 

 insignificant. But in the autumn of 1819 three members 

 of the Senate (John Herschel, George Peacock, and 

 Charles Babbage) had entered into the mathematical 

 society of Paris, and brought away some of the works on 

 pure mathematics (especially those of Lacroix) and on 



