COLLEGE life in mid-century, or rather in the “forties and fifties,” during the early dark days of struggle and ten years thereafter, differed greatly from College life in our day. It is difficult perhaps fully to realise the changes since that time in other ways than growth. The McGill of our day is not the McGill of seventy years ago, not merely in its accommodation and its advantages, but in its internal activities.
McGill College in 1855
Under the original Statutes of the College the administration was under the control of four distinct bodies: (1) The Corporation, which met annually on the day after commencement day “to inspect the Books and Accounts of the Registrar, Bursar and Secretary and to transact all such business relative to the property of the University as might be necessary.” This body seems to have taken no part in strictly Academic discussions. (2) The Board of Governors, which met quarterly in March, June, September and December, and which was in supreme control; two constituted a quorum and the Principal had a double or casting vote. (3) The Caput, which met weekly and consisted of the Principal, Vice-Principal and Professors, three forming a quorum. The duty of this body was “to frame Rules and Regulations for the discipline, lectures, studies and internal government of the Lecturers, Scholars, Students, Inferior Officers and other members of the College and to make regulations regarding the expenses and system of living within the College.” They had no control at first, however, over studies or lecturers in the Faculty of Medicine. (4) The Convocation, which met “four times in every Term for the purposes of conferring Degrees, such meetings being regulated by the Caput.” Every Professor, Lecturer and Tutor had to take the oath of allegiance and of office.
Discipline was severe and was rigidly enforced. Every Professor was given power to punish students by confinement and fine, the fine not to exceed five shillings and the confinement not to exceed twelve hours. Many of the early regulations are of interest. The duties of the Vice-Principal seem to have been responsible and arduous. All disciplinary measures as well as the general conduct of the University were under his direct supervision. He was compelled to reside in the College, and during the non-residence of the Principal he was to be “the parent and guardian of the College Household.” It was his duty “to examine students for matriculation, maintain the observance of the Statutes by Professors, Students, Inferior Officers and all other resident members of the College, enforcing such observance by admonitions and punishments; to direct the students in their studies, promoting by all the means in his power their progress in Religion, and Learning; to preside over the Collegiate Exercises and regulate the Inferior Officers and Servants of the College.” At meals served in the College distinctive tables were provided, one for “Members of Convocation and Bachelors of Civil Law, Lecturers, Fellows and Tutors”; one for Bachelors of Arts and Students in Law and Medicine who had graduated in Arts; and one or more for undergraduates. The academical year consisted of three terms, the Michaelmas Term, the Lent Term and the Easter Term, and it extended from the first Wednesday in September until the third Wednesday in June. The Arts course extended over three years. Until a Chapel should be built it was imperative that Divine Service should be held in some convenient room, and on the first and last days of every term the Principal or one of the Professors, Lecturers or Tutors selected by the Principal for the purpose, preached a sermon in the College or in one of the Protestant churches of Montreal; attendance in full academic dress of all the members of the University excepting those who had obtained a dispensation was compulsory. The prayers in the College Chapel were said morning and evening; the service was conducted in rotation by Officers of the College.
It was required that “the dress of all members of the University should be plain, decent and comely without superfluous ornament.” No member of the Arts Faculty was allowed to appear in Church, Chapel, Lecture or Dining-hall without his gown and only by special permission from the Vice-Principal was a student permitted to go outside of the College grounds without his academic dress. Students were not allowed to resort to any inn or tavern or place of public amusement without special permission from the Vice-Principal. They were not allowed to remain out of College nor to entertain visitors in their rooms after 10 o'clock at night, and the Vice-Principal, Professors, Lecturers and Tutors had authority to enter at all hours the rooms of undergraduates. Junior students were required “to pay the respect due to their Seniors both in public and in private by taking off their caps, giving place to them and by other useful modes of attention and civility.”
The course of study leading to a degree in the Faculty of Arts was of three years' duration. Courses were of two kinds, from which students could make a choice. One consisted of Mathematics, Logic, and Ethics; the other of Classics. In the former the First Year was devoted to the study of six books of Euclid, Algebra to the end of Quadratic Equations, and Trigonometry to the end of the solution of Plain Triangles. In the second year the course included a repetition of all the first year work, Analytic Geometry, Differential and Integral Calculus, and Logic, consisting of Fallacies, Induction and “a sketch of a system of Philosophy of the Human Mind.” The work of the third or final year was in Physics, Astronomy, and Ethics, principally “Butler's Analogy.” In the Classics course selections from Homer, Virgil, Euripides and Horace were read in the first year; selections from Cicero, Horace, Demosthenes and Sophocles in the second year; and selections from Herodotus, Æschylus, Thucydides, and Tacitus in the third year. In the first and second years the students were “exercised in Greek and Latin Composition, and they were also given a few lectures in Ancient History and Geography.” In the third or final year they were exercised in English Composition.
Conditions in the Medical School at that period have been described by a contemporary, Dr. D. C. Maccallum, who graduated in 1850, when the Medical Classes were held in two rooms of the Arts building:
“A large proportion of the students,” he said, “were men verging on, or who had passed, middle age. Indeed, several of them were married men and the heads of families. There was sufficient of the youthful, however, to keep things lively. 'Footing Suppers,' practical jokes, and special country excursions to secure material for practical anatomy, were of frequent occurrence. The last, involving as it did a certain amount of danger, commended itself particularly to the daring spirits of the class, who were always ready to organise and lead an excursion having that object in view. These excursions were not at all times successful, and the participators in them were sometimes thwarted in their attempts and had to beat a precipitate retreat to save themselves from serious threatened injury. They contributed, moreover, to the unpopularity of the medical student. 'Footing Suppers' were functions of the simplest and most unpretentious character. Each new matriculant was expected, although many failed to conform to the arrangement, to select an evening on which to entertain his fellow students, the entertainment consisting generally in furnishing biscuits and beer—the old, time-endorsed 'cakes and ale.' In partaking of these, smoking, relating humorous stories, chaffing each other and singing rousing songs, the evening usually passed with much bonhommie. But sometimes they were rather boisterous, or, at least, noisy and exciting....