examiner's time, far too much of the time of some costly expert. It requires less on the part of the student than does the written examination, but greatly more on that of the instructor. Any one, however, who has taken a university doctorate examination, in the focus of a concave mirror of kind but searching inquisitors, appreciates that it is the method above all others for finding out how little a student knows about a difficult subject. For this reason oral examination is coming more and more into use. Here it is possible to ask fifty questions instead of five or ten. The examiner can almost see the associational machine work, and therefore can judge for himself whether it be adequate or not; he sees the living mechanism itself, and not only its product. Theoretically, there should be more and more oral examinations in all kinds of schools, in the higher grade-schools, for example, as soon as it may be arranged; this matter is making progress, especially in the medical schools.
Written examinations are a make-shift, but they are much better than nothing. Oral examinations are far more psychological than written ones, and give the really efficient mind and knowledge a much better chance. About as many, I take it,
