NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY DEGREES. 453 
Tt is obvious that to complete the parallelism of the Arts and 
Science courses—a very desirable object as it seems to me—two new 
degrees must be established; an M.Sc. (Master of Science) to corre- 
spond with M.A., and a D.Lit. (Doctor of Literature) to correspond 
with D.Sc. This is the plan adopted at the Victoria University, 
Manchester. At Cambridge also, where the single Honours degree 
(B.A.) may be taken in either Arts or Science subjects, the two 
degrees of D.Lit. and D.Sc. have recently been established, and are 
given, not upon an examination in the ordinary sense of the word, 
but upon proof of having produced original work of sufficiently high 
character in science or letters. 
One very important step has been made by the Senate at its 
recent meeting: namely, the detailed definition of certain of the 
Natural Science subjects both for the theoretical and practical 
examinations. Physics is already defined in the Calendar with some 
approach to fulness, and the Senate has this year adopted a Biology 
syllabus sent up by the three Professors of that subject in the Colony. 
But the definition of Chemistry in the Calendar and that of Geology 
in this year’s Minutes are both extremely meagre, and should be 
carefully developed and expanded next year. The Geology for the 
Pass Examination, as now defined, is by no means the equivalent of 
either Botany or Zvology; no definition of practical work in that 
subject is given in the Statutes, and the syllabus proposed by Prof. 
von Haast (Minutes, p. 23) is so brief that it may be taken to mean 
either very little or very much according to the nature and fancy of 
the teacher or examiner. 
In Chemistry, again, nothing whatever is said as to the scope of 
the practical examination, so that a teacher of this very important 
subject is at liberty either to put his students through a really 
complete laboratory course, or to let them off with that minimum 
amount of “ test-tubing” which so often passes muster for practical 
chemistry. 
Lastly, the Honours subject Physiology is defined as “ Human 
Anatomy and Animal Physiology,” ‘This must certainly be altered. 
Human Anatomy is a medical subject, and should have no place in a 
general science course. The subject ought to be defined so as to 
include a certain amount of vertebrate anatomy as well as histology, 
experimental physiology, and physiological chemistry. 
In conclusion I should like to make one criticism on the Physics 
syllabus. It certainly seems to me that in a general science course 
the whole subject should be included, even at the risk of going less 
deeply into its various subdivisions. I do not think that a man who 
aims at scientific culture can afford to be quite ignorant either of 
Sound and Light, or of Electricity and Magnetism. For Honours it is 
no doubt advisable to divide so heavy a subject, but for the Pass 
Examination I should prefer to see the whole subject included, as in 
the Ist B.Sc. of the London University. 
