526 



NATURE 



[Oct. 29, 1874 



cases that tlicy can be got to reproduce the reasoinriL: by 

 which these resuUs are connected with general physical 

 principles. The industry displayed in acquiring separate 

 ragments of information about Physics is often extremely 

 creditable ; but it is impossible not to regret that the 

 same method should be employed in learning what is 

 called Science, as in learning the dates of accession of the 

 Kings of England. 



A still more curious instance of the antiquarian ten- 

 dencies of the University of London is afforded by the 

 Regulations for the Degrees in Science, which were insti- 

 tuted as recently as 1S60. It might have been supposed 

 that when the Senate had once determined to make so 

 great an innovation in the tniditional usages of English 

 Universities as to grant Degrees in Science, they would 

 have been impelled by the spirit of their own act to frame 

 such regulations for the examinations as should be in full 

 agreement with the present state of science. I recognise 

 as fully as anyone the impropriety of introducing any- 

 thing that can fairly be called a new discovery into exami- 

 nations such as those for the London degree of Bachelor 

 of Science, but between such a course and that adopted 

 by the University there is a very broad via media. In 

 order to obtain the degree of Bachelor of Science, a can- 

 didate requires, after Matriculation, to pass two further 

 examinations, called respectively the First and Second 

 B.Sc. Examination. At the former, a paper is set in what 

 is called " Mechanical Philosophy," and another in 

 " Natural Philosophy," the Mechanical Philosophy being 

 a repetition of the subjects called Natural Philosophy at 

 Matriculation, with a few additions, chiefly under the 

 head of Optics, while the Natural Philosophy includes 

 Heat, Electricity., and RFac^nctism. At the Second B.Sc. 

 Examination there are two papers in " Mechanical and 

 Natural Philosophy," which are explained by the Regula- 

 tions to mean nearly the same parts of Statics, Dynamics, 

 Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, and Geometrical Optics as those 

 prescribed for the First B.Sc. Examination, but treated a 

 little more fully, and with the addition of a very little 

 Acoustics, a little Physical Optics, and a smattering of 

 Astronomy. The details given in the Regulations under 

 each of these general heads are open to the same general 

 criticisms as those which I have already ventured to make 

 upon the mode in which the requirements in Natural 

 Philosophy are stated in the Regulations for Matricula- 

 tion ; in fact, those parts of the subject which are 

 common to the three examinations are specified in very 

 nearly the same words in each case, the difference being 

 that a slightly more mathematical treatment of them is 

 expected at the higher examinations. In each case there 

 is the same failure to suggest general and comprehensive 

 points of view, and the same enumeration of particular 

 examples, as though they were of equal importance with 

 the general principles which they illustrate. It is just as 

 if, in an examination in Latin or Greek, instead of its 

 being stated that candidates would be required to answer 

 questions in grammar, lists of particular nouns and verbs 

 were given with the announcement that candidates might 

 be required to give the declensions or principal parts of 

 any of these. ISut these Regulations are defective not 

 only in form but in substance — not only in spirit but in 

 matter. Without going into further details in order to 

 justify this statement, I may mention, by way of illustra- 

 tion, that at the First B.Sc. Examination, under the head 

 Electricity, there is no distinct reference to any of the 

 quantitative laws of the science, and it is only by a laxity 

 of interpretation quite unsuitcd to the subject that an 

 obscure allusion to Ohm's Law can be discovered — the 

 great law expressing the connection between the strength 

 of an electric current and the nature of the circuit 

 which it traverses ; while, under Heat, no liberality of 

 interpretation could detect the smallest trace of the 

 Dynamical Theory of Heat. This last omission, however, 

 ceases to be surprising when we find the steam-engine 



classed with tlie commo}! pjmp and forcing-pump ; tl'.c 

 hydrostatic press, the barometer, and the air-pump, under 

 Hydrostatics, Hydraulics, and Pneumatics. It might 

 have been natural a hundred years ago to look for New- 

 comen's atmospheric engine among such company ; but, 

 even then, James Watt had nearly converted the old 

 atmospheric engine into the modern steam-engine. 



But there is no need to enter upon any minute investi- 

 gation of the Regulations for these examinations, iti order 

 to be convinced that their effect upon the study of Physics 

 must be unfavourable. The small amount of encourage- 

 ment which they hold out to pursue this subject seriously 

 is shown by the fact that a London Bachelor of .Science is 

 not required to have any more knowledge of heat, mag- 

 netism, or electricity than candidates for degrees in Medi- 

 cine are required to show at the " Preliminary Scientific 

 (iSI.B.) Examination," which, in the usual course of things, 

 is taken one year after Matriculation ; and also by the 

 fact that the papers in Mechanical and Natural Philosophy 

 set at the Second B.Sc. Examination are identical with 

 those set in the same subjects at the Second B.A. Exami- 

 nation. I have no fault to find with one side of this last 

 arrangement ; I have already given reasons for consider- 

 ing that Physics ought to occupy an important place in 

 general education, and, from this point of view, the 

 physical subjects for the Second B.A. Examination are, on 

 the whole, not injudiciously chosen ; but it is certainly 

 strange that a degree in Science should not imply any 

 greater acquaintance with the fundamental principles of 

 Mechanics than is demanded of candidates for the degree 

 of Bachelor of Arts, the examination for which is in the 

 main literary and classicak Another fact, which may be 

 regarded as a sort of experimental proof that the exa- 

 minations of the University of London do not promote 

 such a study of the elements of Physics as can serve as 

 the foundation for a more advanced study, is that for the 

 last five years a special examination for Plonours in 

 Experimental Physics has been held in connection with 

 the First B.Sc. and Preliminary Scientific (M.B.) Exa- 

 minations, at which a Medal and a Scholarship of 40/. 

 a year, tenable for two years, are offered to the most 

 deserving candidate in case of his exhibiting sufficient 

 absolute merit, but hitherto the scholarship and medal 

 have never been awarded, and only once has a can- 

 didate obtained a First Class at this examination. 



The other examinations of the University of London 

 into which Physics enters to a greater or less extent, arc, 

 that for the degree of M.A. in Branch II., and those for 

 the degree of D.Sc. in certain branches; but as these 

 examinations come at a stage of a man's career at which 

 it may be supposed that his methods of study are not 

 greatly influenced by the regulations of examining bodies, 

 and as, moreover, the Regulations of the Universityrclative 

 to these degrees do not go much into detail, there is no 

 reason for dwelling upon them in connection with my 

 present subject. 



I do not propose to say much about that part of the 

 examinations for which the Examiners, rather than the 

 Senate, are directly responsible ; but there are one or two 

 considerations which, although sufficiently obvious, it may 

 be worth while to point out. First of all, however, I shall 

 venture, presumptuous as it may be thought, to make one 

 remark on the choice of the persons best fitted to be 

 examiners. It has more than once been claimed as a 

 special merit of the University of London, that the 

 examiners arc not teachers, or at least that they have 

 nothing to do with teaching the candidates whom they arc 

 called upon to examine. Fortunately, however, this is not 

 the case. As a matter of fact, the great majority of the 

 examiners arc always teachers, and it may quite well 

 happen, at least at some of the smaller examinations, 

 that a majority of the candidates have been pupils of a 

 single examiner. 15ut I venture to think that, instead of 

 this stale of things being considered as a more or less 



