23 JUNE 1877, Page 3

The Senate of the University of London decided on Wed-

neaday against the policy of delay which was proposed by the opponents of medical degrees for women, by a majority of 16 against 11. The debate turned chiefly on the constitutional question of the deference to be paid by the Senate to the *al. les of Convocation. But as in this case, Convocation has repeatedly exposed its wish to admit women to all its degrees, and even in the exceptional session of May 8,—when the vast majority of those who favoured delay as regards the medical degrees, were medical gra- duates who had made an, unusual effort to attend in large numbers,—had not ventured beyond a request to the Senate, carried by a small majority, to postpone action in rela- tion to the medical degrees till the subject of women's degrees could be dealt with as a whole, it would obviously have been a very feeble course to go back from the resolution already arrived at. The Lancet of this week tries to make a point against the Senate, on the assumption that women will be examined in medi- cine on terms less stringent than men. But that hypothetical censure is a leap in the dark, for which there will certainly never be the least justification.