Note that this is transcription of parts of this notice, the parts which seem to relate to the study of anthropology before 1880 at Oxford. A PDF version of the notice is available at the end of this page
Notice by the Board of Studies for the Natural Sciences School of the University of Oxford issued in pursuance of Statute Tit. V. (VI.) Section I Oxford 1872
The Board consisted of:
Henry W. Acland, Regius Professor of Medicine
B. Price, Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy
M.A. Lawson, Professor of Botany
R.B. Clifton, Professor of Experimental Philosophy
M.N.H. Story Maskelyne, Professor of Mineralogy
John Phillips, Professor of Geology
B.C. Brodie, Waynflete Professor of Chemistry
George Rolleston, Linacre Professor of Physiology
J.O. Westwood, Hope Professor of Zoology
[see further details in People]
School of Natural Science
The Board of Studies for the Natural Science School hereby give notice that the range of subjects included in the Examinations, shall be as follows:--
Preliminary Honour Examination
1. Mechanics and Physics ...
2. Chemistry ...
Final Honour Examination
The Final Honour Examination comprises three General Subjects, viz.--
I. Physics,
II. Chemistry,
III. Biology;
and the following Special Subjects, which may be taken in as supplementary to one or more of the General Subjects:--
A. Crystallography and Mineralogy,-- the former as included under the General Subjects of Physics and Chemistry, the latter as included under Chemistry.
B. Geology and Palaeontology,--the former as included under the three General Subjects, the latter as included under Biology.
C. Zoology } as subjects included under Biology
D. Botany } as subjects included under Biology
The several sections which follow deal with the manner in which each separate subject, whether general or special, is to be studied by a Candidate for honours.
The appended list of books are intended to serve as guides, suggestive of the best courses of study, and offering some choice of text-books. Alternative treatises are in several cases included in the lists in the same paragraph.
In many instances portions only of the works recommended will need to be studied as treating in a special manner of the subjects for which the book may be recommended.
The Board desire it to be understood that a knowledge of the subjects, based on practical work, as well as knowledge gathered from books, will always be required at the examinations in this School.
... III. Biology
1. Candidates who offer themselves in the Final Honour Examination for examination in Biology will be expected to show an acquaintance, firstly, with General and Comparative Anatomy and Histology; [footnote: Under these terms vegetable structures are included] secondly, with Human and Comparative Physiology, inclusive of Physiological Chemistry; and thirdly, with the General Philosophy of the subject.
2. In these subjects the Candidates will be examined both by paper work and practically; and will be required to give evidence of being competent not merely to verify and describe specimens already prepared for naked-eye or microscopic demonstration as the case may be, but also to prepare such or similar specimens themselves.
3. Candidates may, in addition to the amount of work indicated in the preceding paragraphs, bring up any of the 'Special Subjects' contained in the list appended below. A Candidate who offers himself for examination in a Special Subject will be expected to show, firstly, a detailed practical acquaintance with specimens illustrating that subject, for which purpose the Catalogues of the University Museum can be made available; and secondly, exact knowledge of some one or more monographs treating of it. Excellence, however, in a Special Subject will not compensate for failure in any essential part of the general examination.
Every Candidate must state, at the time of entering his name for examination, what Special Subject, if any, he takes in.
A student who offers himself for examination in a Special Subject is referred to the following provision List:--
a. Comparative Osteology.
b. The Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Organs of Digestion.
c. The Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Organs of Circulation and Respiration.
d. The Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System
e. The Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Reproductive Systems.
f. Ethnology [boldening by transcriber [1]]
4. The following works are provisionally recommended by the Board of Studies for use in the study of the above-mentioned Departments of Biology.
... (b) List of books recommended in connexion with 'Special Subjects':--
... Ethnology
Brace's Races of the Old World, 2nd ed. Lond., 1869.
5. Candidates who offer themselves for examination in Geology, Zoology, or Botany, will be required to exhibit practical acquaintance with those subjects to at least the same extent as Candidates who offer themselves for examination in any one of the Special Subjects above mentioned are required to do with reference to those subjects. But they will not be required to go through the same amount of practical work in the Departments of Biology not specially connected with Geology, Zoology, or Botany, as Candidates who do not bring up any of these three subjects.
... Signed by order of the Board of Studies in the Natural Science School
Henry W. AclandChairman
May 4, 1870.
Appendix.
Statt. Tit. V. (VI.) Section. 1
§6. Of the Honour School of Natural Science.
1. The subjects of examination in the Honour School of Natural Science shall be Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
2. The Examination shall be divided into two parts: the one to be termed the Preliminary Honour Examination; the other to be termed the Final Honour Examination.
3. The Preliminary Honour Examination shall be compulsory upon all Candidates in the School, and shall be restricted to the more elementary parts of (1) Mechanics and Physics, (2) Chemistry, together with a practical examination of a simple character in the latter subject at least.
3. A Candidate shall be allowed to present himself for the Preliminary Honour Examination either on the occasion of his Final Honour Examination, or at any previous Examination in the Natural Science School subsequent to the time at which he passes his First Public Examination; and he shall be allowed to present himself for the Preliminary Examination in Mechanics and Physics at a different Examination from that in which he presents himself for the Preliminary Examination in Chemistry.
5. In the Final Honour Examination, a Candidate may offer himself for examination in one or more of the three general subjects of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. The Final Honour Examination shall in each subject be partly practical.
6. The place assigned to a Candidate in the list of Classes shall depend upon the joint result, in the judgement of the Examiners, of his examination in all the subjects in which he offers himself for examination on the occasion of his Final Honour Examination, whether they be included in the Preliminary or Final divisions of the Examination.
7. The Final Honour Examination shall begin not later than seven days after the termination of the Preliminary Honour Examination; and, during the interval between the two parts of the Examination, a list of those who have passed the Preliminary Examination shall be issued by the Examiners, the subject or subjects in which each Candidate has passed being stated.
8. In the Final Honour Examination, a Candidate may, in addition to his general subject or subjects, offer himself for examination in special subjects included under any of the three general subjects of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. These special subjects shall be selected by the Candidate from a list to be issued by the Board of Studies.
9. The Board of Studies for this School shall be--
The Regius Professor of Medicine,
The Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy,
The Professor of Botany,
The Professor of Experimental Philosophy,
The Professor of Mineralogy,
The Professor of Geology,
The Waynflete Professor of Chemistry,
The Linacre Professor of Physiology.
The Professor of Zoology,
together with the Examiners in the School for the time being, and all persons who serve as Examiners in the School within the two years preceding.
10. The Board of Studies shall issue a notice explanatory of the range of subjects included in the Preliminary Honour Examination, and also a similar notice with respect to the Final Honour Examination; and shall have power, subject to the provisions of this statute, to revise such notices from time to time.
The Board shall also issue a list of the special subjects above mentioned, and have power to revise the same from time to time.
The Board shall also have power to frame, from time to time, regulations as to the conduct of the Examinations.
See here for Nature's review of this Notice
My thanks to Mark Dickerson and Kate Santry from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History Research Libraries who retrieved and scanned this notice.
Notes by transcriber
[1] OED definition of Ethnology:
'The science which treats of races and peoples, and of their relations to one another, their distinctive physical and other characteristics, etc.'
OED quotes John Lubbock, 'Ethnology, in fact, is passing at present through a phase from which other Sciences have safely emerged.' (from Prehistoric Times 4th edition Preface page 9]
Wikipedia defines ethnology as:
'Ethnology (from the Greek ἔθνος, ethnos meaning "people, nation, race") is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity'
See here for an article about the Pitt Rivers Museum and Ethnology
Transcribed by AP October 2012
