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Roy MacLeod (editor), Days of Judgement. Science, Examinations and the Organization of Knowledge in Late Victorian England . Driffield: Studies in Education Ltd., Nafferton Books, 1982. Pp. ix + 250. ISBN 0-905484-15-0. £15.95.

This book contains nine papers given at a conference of historians of education and of science at the University of Sussex in 1978, together with a substantial Introduction by the editor. Publication was delayed by the economic recession, but subsequent research has not detracted from its value. There is no other work which views science examinations from the standpoints of epistemology, sociology and politics and which explores such a diverse range of examination contexts— from Oxbridge, London medical schools and the education of army officers, to school science and the education of artisans and technicians under the auspices of the Science and Art Department and the City and Guilds of London Institute. Not all papers are the product of recent research activity by their authors, nor do they share a common historiography. Indeed, the contrast between the four papers in Part 3, on Examinations, Specialisation and Educational Ideals, and one or two of the earlier papers is nicely illustrative of changing perspectives in the history of education over the past twenty years. Apart from the interest of individual papers, the book as a whole sketches an agenda for future research in this field, the conference revealing some notable gaps in our knowledge of science examinations. The introduction of public competitive examinations in Victorian Britain made available to scientists an 'engine' for driving their subjects in to the educational system. Men like J.D. Hooker, keen to elevate the status of botany in the 1850s, planned the capture of examinerships with conspiratorial zeal, not only to secure the place of their subject, but also to define it in ways deemed important for its advancement. On this point, the social construction of particular versions of school and university science, the papers have little to say. In order to establish science it was necessary 'to embrace the examination octopus'. The extent and characteristics of only some of the tentacles are explored in Days of Judgement, but a useful beginning has been made.