Of Sealing Wax and String

In the first part of this century science made slower progress at Oxford than at Cambridge, or for that matter at Edinburgh, Manchester or London. Morrell reviews the quarter of a century in which, he implies, this laggardly position was corrected. He follows in detail the careers and policies of virtually all the members of the science faculties in this period and garnishes these with brief overviews of their significant research. The work has clearly had a long gestation as the copious footnotes refer, inter alia, to personal communications more than a decade ago gleaned, as the preface indicates, whilst the author was preparing his chapter for The History of the University of Oxford. For anyone not familiar with at least some of the persons or departments the extent of the detail could be tedious and there is some repetition, a reflection no doubt of the length of time the book has been in preparation. Five of the chapters are explicitly devoted to particular departments, or groups of departments, whilst that entitled 'Refugee Scientists' is largely an account of the Clarendon, one of the two Physics departments. In the first three chapters and the concluding one Morrell addresses the story on a general basis and develops his thesis. How could it be that as recently as the 1920s it was seriously suggested that Oxford should leave the sciences to Cambridge? Why were the sciences weak at Oxford? What were the obstacles to changing this state of affairs? Morrell points to two major factors causing the weakness: the strength of the colleges compared with the feebleness of the University and the pervading ethos of the liberal education; research and teaching should not be 'useful'. In true Oxford style these ideas are put forward with many caveats; as a colleague once described Council's papers to me 'on one hand, on the other and on the third hand'. This is not a criticism of the book, it captures the complexities and contradictions that are a consequence of Oxford's polycratic struc-