254 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
It might at least have been supposed that the increasing stringency of the 
Matriculation Examination, and the further filtration of Candidates through 
the Preliminary Scientific, would have had the effect of insuring better 
results in the First and Second M.B. Examinations than had been previously 
attained. Not in the least. For whereas down to 1860 the rejections at 
the First M.B. were only 27 per cent, and those at the Second M.B. only 
16; since 1860 the rejections at the First and Second M.B. have been 
respectively 35 and 19 per cent. Collecting these several results, it appears 
that whereas prior to 1861 the rejections at the three examinations which 
medical graduates had then to undergo, were severally 16, 27, and 16 per 
cent ; from 1861 inclusive the rejections at the four examinations now in 
force have been severally 49, 47, 35, and 19 per cent ; and that while in the 
former period the chances were that out of every 100 medical Candidates at 
the Matriculation Examination, 51 would become Bachelors of Medicine, in the 
latter period the chances of final success have dwindled down to 14 per cent. 
‘ The fault of the regulations of the University in reference to the Matri- 
culation and Preliminary Scientific Examinations, is that examination in too 
wide a range of subjects, and too extensive a knowledge of them, are required 
of Candidates who, for the most part, are fresh from school, or at any rate 
have had very little time for serious study after leaving school. The mere 
enumeration of the subjects required of a Candidate at the Matriculation 
Examination, is sufficient to condemn it as an entrance examination. They 
are as follows Latin ; two out of the three languages, Greek, French, and 
German ; English ; English History with Modern Geography ; Arithmetic ; 
Algebra, up to and including simple equations ; the first four books of 
Euclid ; Natural Philosophy, including Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Hydraulics, 
and Pneumatics, Optics and Heat; and Chemistry. Why, even a public 
school-boy of high attainments could not pass such an examination in virtue 
only of the knowledge he has been acquiring for many years at school ; and 
in the case of boys of average intelligence and education, it involves an 
outrageously severe and altogether unremunerative mental and physical 
strain. Who among the Senate even, or who among the examiners, is 
competent at this moment to pass successfully through such an ordeal? 
The Preliminary Scientific Examination, again, is one of exceeding difficulty, 
far too difficult, indeed, for that period of a student’s career at which he is 
required to pass it. Moreover, as I have already observed, it embraces a 
list of subjects, scarcely one of which has any direct bearing on medicine. 
In fact, they are placed here in order to get rid of them at once and for 
ever, so that they may not embarrass the student's further progress. The 
subjects are : — Mechanical and Natural Philosophy, treated far too pro- 
foundly for most men who aim at a degree in medicine ; Zoology, which 
can only be satisfactorily studied after the student has learnt anatomy and 
physiology ; Botany, which is of very little, if any, use to a medical man ; 
and Inorganic Chemistry. Is it astonishing that a large number of youths 
fail to pass the examination ? 
1 The faults in the conduct of the examinations relate to the quality of the 
questions which are set, and to the standard of merit which the examiners 
adopt. A 8 to the general quality of the questions, I have looked through 
paper after paper set at the Matriculation and Preliminary Scientific Ex- 
