Natural Science at Cambridge

Abstract

IN NATURE for January 12, 1871 (p. 209), there appeared an article headed “Natural Science at Cambridge,” which has the air of having been promulgated permissu (if not auctoritate) superiorum. It is extremely gratifying to read the list of exhibitions and scholarships founded or proposed to be founded in certain Colleges in this University, but the concluding sentence of the article has struck me as having been penned by one with whom the wish was father to the thought. It is said that “most of the Colleges are understood to be willing to award Fellowships for merit in Natural Science equivalent to that for which they are in the habit of giving them for Classics and Mathematics.” Now this is entirely at variance with my own opinion on the subject, formed on a somewhat wide acquaintance with members of various colleges; and I would beg of the writer to be good enough to inform the public through your columns, first, how many Fellowships have solely and actually been awarded for merit in Natural Science, and, secondly, which of the sixteen colleges, besides Trinity, have absolutely declared that a Fellowship shall be the reward of great proficiency in Natural Science. I need not say how glad I shall be to find that my opinion is erroneous.