Chapter X - The mathematical tripos

Summary

I traced in chapter V. the steps by which mathematics became in the eighteenth century the dominant study in the university. I purpose in this chapter to give a sketch of the rise of the mathematical tripos, that is, of the instrument by which the proficiency of students in mathematics came ultimately to be tested.

The proctors had from the earliest time had the power of questioning a candidate when a disputation was closed. I believe that it was about 1725 that the moderators began the custom of regularly summoning those candidates in regard to whose abilities and position some doubt was felt. In earlier times each candidate had been examined when his act was finished, but now all the candidates to be questioned were present at the same time, and this enabled the moderators to compare one man with another.

An additional reason why it was then desirable to use this latent power was the fact that at that time it had become impossible to get rooms in which all the statutable exercises could be properly performed, and many, even of the best men, had no opportunity to shew their dialectical skill by means of the exercises in the schools. This arose from the fact that when George I. in 1710 presented the university with thirty thousand1 books and manuscripts, there was no suitable place in which they could be arranged. It was accordingly decided to build a new senate-house, and use the old one as part of the library, and meanwhile the books were stored in the schools and the old senate-house.