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ACTA

Congregation of the Regent House on 24 June 1998

A Congregation of the Regent House was held this day at 11.20 a.m. The Chancellor was present.

Music was performed at the Congregation by the choirs of King's College and St John's College, and by the King's Trumpeters.

By Graces 1-9 of 21 February 1998 the conferment of the following Honorary Degrees had been approved by the Regent House:

Doctor of Law (honoris causa)
AUNG SAN SUU KYI
Co-founder and General Secretary of the National League for Democracy, Burma
 
Doctor of Law (honoris causa)
The Right Honourable BARBARA ANNE, Baroness CASTLE OF BLACKBURN
 
Doctor of Law (honoris causa)
HELMUT KOHL
Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
 
Doctor of Law (honoris causa)
Sir AARON KLUG
O.M., Sc.D., P.R.S.
Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse and of Trinity College, formerly Director of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge
 
Doctor of Law (honoris causa)
RAYMOND SACKLER
Hon. K.B.E.
 
Doctor of Science (honoris causa)
RITA LEVI-MONTALCINI
of the Institute of Neurobiology of the National Research Council, Rome
 
Doctor of Science (honoris causa)
Dame ANNE LAURA MCLAREN
F.R.S.
Honorary Fellow of King's College and of Lucy Cavendish College, Principal Research Associate in the Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research Campaign Institute, Cambridge
 
Doctor of Letters (honoris causa)
NATALIE ZEMON DAVIS
Henry Charles Lee Professor of History Emeritus, Princeton University, Senior Fellow in the Centre for Comparative Literature in the University of Toronto
 
Doctor of Letters (honoris causa)
Sir HENRY WILLIAM RAWSON WADE
LL.D., Q.C., F.B.A.
Fellow and formerly Master of Gonville and Caius College, Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Rouse Ball Professor of English Law Emeritus

Dr Aung San Suu Kyi was regrettably unable to attend the Congregation, and therefore could not be presented for a degree. The Orator delivered the following citation in her honour:

NUMQUAM post memoriam nobis moris erat ut gradum honoris causa tribueremus absenti. collocatam in sella quam uacuam uidemus eam uisuri eramus quae caput reipublicae ciuium suffragiorum quattuor partibus creata munus exercet suum nullum, sed ui tyrannorum armisque prohibetur. hic ut adesset igitur ipsa sibi non permittit. at enim licet: abeat licet, excedat, euadat, erumpat!1 accepta tamen ista facultate, num liceret ut rediret? ut lupa quae dicitur esse, quae amphisbaena, maga, alieno nupta uiro rediret? quin me paenitet illa dixisse, sed talibus opprobri nominibus obiurgatur,
Andromede tamquam monstris deuota marinis2
(uel potius Myanmarinis). ut tamen illi prae timore non eam perdere, ita ne qui Perseus audeat expedire: coniugis enim filiorumque quamuis orbata praesentia summum ante oculos suos hoc habet, ut magis ciuibus quam sibi consulat et optatae libertatis constantissima testis adsit.
comitem se saepe ne fortibus quidem comprobat uirtus. pater, uir fortissimus, cum pro libertate suorum strenue pugnauisset, clandestina morte trucidatus filiae duo modo natae annos ereptus est. mater legati munere apud Indos olim est functa. ipsa non modo nostrati apud Oxonienses instituta doctrina sed etiam in moribus est educata patriis: decalogo illo in uita utitur quem docuit Indicus sapiens, ut probitate et integritate sis uitae, ut austero et benigno sis animo, ut ueniam des et stipem, ut uim ponas et iram, ut ipsum te posthabeas nec uoluntati plebis obstes.
tali uirtute et ingenio femina, excellentissime Cancellari noster, utinam hic eo posset honore honorari quo uolumus, quo decet, quo optime meretur, Pacti et Conuenti Gentilis pro Democratia sponsor, Nobeliano praemio pacis ornata,
AUNG SAN SUU KYI

1 Cicero in Catilinam i 1.
2 See Propertius ii, 28 21.

IT is the custom of this University that no one is granted an honorary degree in absentia. Seated in the chair that we see empty we were to have seen a lady who was elected leader of her country by four-fifths of the people; yet the office she should be holding is null: a military tyranny continues to keep her out. Hence her absence today, an absence self-imposed. For she could be here. Indeed, they heartily wish she were. But if she exercised that freedom, would she be free to return? They call her whore and snake and sorceress, and revile her for wedding a foreigner: would she be free to return? Those are ugly words, almost better not said, but such are the waves of abuse that crash upon her, like some Andromeda on the rock, self-sacrificed to ogres from the depths. They do not dare destroy her, however, and no Perseus can intervene to release her: it is her own high purpose to endure separation from husband and sons in order to serve the needs of her fellow-citizens, abiding with them in constant witness to the freedom that they chose.
Courage is not always a welcome spirit, even to the brave. Her father, a man of great courage, fought vigorously for his people's freedom, but was assassinated when she was two years old. Her mother later served as ambassador to India. She herself was educated in the western tradition, graduating at Oxford, but she was also brought up in an eastern tradition: she practises the Buddhist decalogue, of morality, integrity, austerity, kindness, forbearance, liberality, non-violence, non-anger, self-sacrifice, and non-opposition to the will of the people.
That is the cast of her courage, most excellent our Chancellor. It is a matter of great regret that we cannot honour here as we would wish and as she most rightly and richly deserves
AUNG SAN SUU KYI,
Co-founder and General Secretary of the National League for Democracy, Burma, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

The Orator then delivered the following speeches when presenting the recipients of Honorary Degrees to the Chancellor:

PRINCIPES rei publicae nostrates non prius in haec sollemnia inuitare solemus quam se muneribus abdicauerint, iamque seniores sunt facti quam ut rebus gestis aliquid peius addiderint. sed haec femina si ad id temporis demoremur quo usque tandem abutatur patientia nostra?1 an ullo tempore opinemur fore ut re publica desistat? nullo profecto, si quid usquam supersit iniquitatis quo quid iustius et melius excogitet.
puella sexennis, dum bello priore gentium pugnatur, hac uti blanditia populari dicitur: Suffragia mihi tuleritis, donabo ego domus. inde intellegatis qualem Camillam ut ita dicam auris popularibus commissam uoueret pater:2 qui filiae uix dubium quin constantiam fidemque laudaret. bello altero confecto, domui communi suffragiis ciuium Nigroriuensium commendata annis plus XXX ter rebus nostris imposuit manum, ter abstinuit. a curribus olim et plaustris erat, ea cui non licuit agere; sed eadem effecit ut indicio tutone quis ageret esset spiritus exhalatus. magis tamen memoria dignus est, etiamsi non feliciter euenit, labor ille certaminum inter conductores et greges amouendorum: fortiter cum utrisque luctata est et cum suorum nonnullis praeterea, sed fortuna tandem Pyrrhi.3
sunt qui sensim emeriti ciuilibus muneribus abscedant; haec decem annos amplius in concilio gentium Europaearum cum laborauisset ne tum quidem a re gerenda omnino discessit; nam non modo annalibus prioribus librum addidit (cuius titulum, bellatrice dignissimum, nimis ferocem esse iam dicit) sed etiam quaestionem exspectat cur non ciuibus emeritis stipendia maiora pendantur.
feminam infinita ui praesento uobis, admodum honorabilem
BARBARAM ANNAM
Baronissam CASTLE de BLACKBURN

1 Cicero in Catilinam i 1.
2 Vergil Aeneid xi 557-60.
3 Pyrrhus is the Latin of [greek], Greek for red-haired.

OUR own political leaders we tend not to honour in this ceremony until their political careers are over, and they have grown too old to spoil the tale of their achievements. If we were so to wait for this lady, when would she cease to tease our forbearance? Can we think she would ever leave off politics? Never, surely, as long as there remained any unfairness which she might replace with something better.
When she was six, we learn, at the time of the first world war, she fashioned the following slogan: Vote for me, and I will give you houses. There you can see the dedication to a combative socialism which her father inspired; the constancy of her commitment would certainly have his praise. At the end of the second world war she entered the House of Commons as member for Blackburn and held her seat for more than thirty years, three times taking part in government as a minister. At one time she was Minister of Transport (although she had no licence to drive a car herself); it is to her that we owe the breath test. But she is best remembered, despite its lack of success, for 'In Place of Strife'. She fought for her proposals most valiantly, even against cabinet colleagues; the outcome, alas, was Pyrrhic.
Some serve their time in politics and withdraw to retirement quietly. She served a fourth decade as a member of the European Parliament, and even after that she did not bid a final farewell to public life. She added to her earlier Diaries a memoir called 'Fighting all the way' (a title she now thinks not gentle enough), and she still awaits with expectation the establishment of her party's commission on pensions.
I present to you a lady of boundless energy, the Right Honourable
BARBARA ANNE,
Baroness CASTLE of BLACKBURN

DIV uarieque hic hospes in rebus publicis non modo Germaniae uersatur sed etiam Europae; quippe cum olim titulis caecis (ut fertur) gustabat, Anglico posito uino ei liquor liquebat unde esset. adeo doctum uiri Palatini palatum esse memoramus.
occupare se
de summis rebus regendis
consilio indu foro lato sanctoque senatu1
iuuenis constituit. in ergastulum militare relegatus cum confecto bello domum pedes adulescens CC milia passuum redisset, mox cum eis stetit qui Konrado fauebant Adenauer. tum fit cursus honorum a municipali nondum XXX nato annos ad summum patriae magistratum, quem diutissime post ferreum illum cancellarium obtinet: quo in cursu quicquid sibi bilis obicitur neglegit, uel si qui Polliones Palatinitatem quandam reprehendere.2
omnium rerum gestarum duo sunt mentione dignissimae. contigit primo dum cancellarius est ut muro illo et obice germanitatis deleto ciuium in occidentem fieret fuga, spe pecuniae perdita. dixit hic nummos quorum pretium in ulteriore Germania seruatum haberent certo esse ad id quod in citeriore pretio: abit res in quietem et fidem. nunc autem agitur de una, eaque prima post Romanos, inter gentis Europaeas ratione nummorum usurpanda. ut illa non sine difficultatibus res erat, ita haec spatio quodam egebit et interuallo temporis dum probatam se faciat. in consilio quidem utroque sunt quae singula quaerantur; in uiro, Germano usque ad uitium dicto esse eodemque ad uitium Europaeo, de re utraque est mora nulla et firma patientia. hic rarum in dumis holus.3
praesento uobis Reipublicae Foederatae Germaniae Cancellarium
HELMUT KOHL

1 Ennius Annales vii 213-14.
2 See Quintilian viii 1.3.
3 Vergil Georgics iv 130.

DR KOHL'S experience in public affairs, not only in Germany but also in Europe, is long and various. He was once at a blind tasting and they produced an English wine: he knew where it came from. We note the learned palate of this man from the Palatinate.
His ambition to enter politics was established early. At the end of the war he found himself on the eastern front: aged fifteen he walked home across Germany two hundred miles and was soon a member of Konrad Adenauer's Christian Democrats. He was elected to his native diet when not yet thirty, and has risen through the ranks to hold the highest political office in his country longer than any man since Bismarck. His success has had its detractors, but he retains his local loyalties and rides above it all.
Of all his achievements two deserve especial mention. First: when the Berlin Wall, that divider of a nation, fell while he was Chancellor, Easterners panicked and fled west, desperate about their currency. The Chancellor spoke: savings put by in eastern marks would be duly honoured in western marks. Calm and confidence returned. Second: now we approach the era of a single monetary system across Europe, the first since the Roman empire. The re- unification of Germany has not been free from trouble: so too the establishment of one currency may well take a generation or more to commend itself. Both policies do have their problems in detail, but not for nothing has this man been called German to a fault and also European to a fault: on both the policies there is no wavering in him at all: his purpose holds. To quote Virgil, this is a man of especial worth.
I present to you
HELMUT KOHL,
Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany

TE, uerruca, cano, uerrucarumque creator
icosahedrali forma mirabile uirus
cum socio, tessellatum quod nicotianae
perdit holus: nam sunt penetralia uestra reclusa
huic homini, qui multimodis primordia rerum
inspiciens uidit propria crescentia uita.
sed quis potis est dignum pollenti pectore carmen
condere pro rerum maiestate hisque repertis?1
Dicendus autem is est quem poeta ille stuperet res tam subtilis aut ipsis oculis conspexisse aut mente concepisse.
iam paene L sunt anni ex quo primum hic uir apud nos earum rerum naturae studere coepit quas moleculas uocamus, earumque praecipue ingenti corpore factarum elementisque multis, quorum quaedam architecturae molecularum ita intersunt ut moderentur qua sit forma; talique in aedificatione uersatur uirus, sed pro nostra parte praue. nam uitio inducto morbum insinuat, quem uelimus expulsum.
inde partim labores huius uiri intellegatis quo tendant. sed oratione perlecta quam praemio Nobeliano accepto habuit, partem alteram laborum cognoueritis: opus enim fuisse ut formam experiretur unius decem annis, ut alterius duodecim, ad apparatus auxiliumque faciendum. o experimenta multiplicia! o Daedalum ingeniosum! fieri uero potest ut pretio maiore quam quae inuenit sint rationes ad inueniendum compertae; nam sunt omnes ad usus alienos aptissimae.
nunc digitos zinci quos dicimus esse recludit.
inter enim binos dentis suspensa figuris
oppositis (hoc se ex helica par alpha uocata
proicit, atque illud laqueo qui beta cluetur
crinalis) zinci primordia singula monstrat
librari; tali ingenio natura gerit res.
praesento uobis Equitem Auratum, Ordini insigniter Meritorum adscriptum, Doctorem in Scientiis, Societatis Regalis Praesidem, Collegiorum Sancti Petri Sanctaeque et Indiuiduae Trinitatis honoris causa Socium, Biologiae Molecularis Elaboratori pro Concilio Rei Medicae Inuestigandae quondam Curatorem,
AARON KLUG

1 Lucretius v 1-2.

OF warts I sing, and of the wonderful
wart-making virus with its twenty sides,
and the tobacco mosaic virus too;
the game is up: your inmost arts are known
to this man, who in many minute ways
has seen you pullulating close at hand.
But who has the power in his breast to make poetry worthy of the wonders of nature and of these discoveries? Here is a scientist at whom Lucretius would marvel, so subtle are the things that his eyes and his mind have seen.
It is nearly fifty years since he first came to Cambridge to study macromolecular complexes. Some elements in these large molecules so affect their structure as to control its shape, and viruses have the same power, but with what we consider an evil effect. The virus sets up a fault, and the fault a disease, which we would like to remove.
That will give some idea of the direction of this man's research. If you read the address he gave upon receiving the Nobel prize for Chemistry, you will develop a second view: he speaks of experiments on this or that piece of viral construction that took ten or twelve years to bring to completion: how complex such research must be, and how inventive the researcher! It may well be that more important than his findings are the means by which he made them: all have proved very useful in other fields.
Now he reveals zinc fingers: for between
two pairs of prongs cysteine and histidine
(projecting from an alpha helix one,
the other from a beta hairpin loop),
he shows the poising of a single atom
of zinc. So neat is Nature's craftsmanship.
I present to you
SIR AARON KLUG, O.M., Sc.D., P.R.S.,
Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse and of Trinity College, formerly Director of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge

HOMERI mihi recitandus est locus ille ubi Ulixi
tradit Cyllenius herbam
e terra euolsam, et quae sit natura recludit.
est radice nigra, tingi flos lacte uidetur,
moly uocant superi. miseris mortalibus illud
difficile est haustu; diui tamen omnia possunt.1
hunc hospitem deone an homini similiorem esse arbitremur? nam iuuenis herbas et artem Aesculapi doctus alienatis animo medebatur; tunc officinam et societatem condidit ad herbas aliamque materiem in remedia conuertendas: quae res adeo mox florebat ut praesto ei esset unde latissime domi forisque bene faceret.
huic uniuersitati facultates ab hoc uiro oblatas laudare iam tempus erat. medicis iunioribus, ad id aetatis cum si quid habent quod altius inuestigare uelint potest impedimento esse res familiaris, domum deuersoriam in nomine ipsius et uxoris instituit quo si admissus eris, omni mercede studebis liberatus; noni uel deni sunt quotannis quibus id auxili praestat. est praeterea annua oratio, quam solet ipse a sapiente de scientiis biomedicis habitam audire, in nomine ipsius et uxoris instituta.
rei medicae si subuenit uix mirum. alterum est quod nostra refert studium caeli. rursus est annua oratio in eisdem nominibus insti-tuta nec non cum auditorio; est autem machina spectatrix huius opibus aedificata qua radiis luminis colore sub rubrum acceptis uicinitates astrorum remotissimae, lacteo orbi nostro haud dissimiles, quomodo creentur et gignantur penitus exploretur. illud nouissimum est studium, in quo uersari cupientibus hic iam uacat iunioribus.
uirum praesento uobis summa diligentia benignitate cura, Excellentissimo Ordini Imperi Britannici Equitem Commendatorem honoris causa adscitum,
RAIMONDUM SACKLER

1 Homer Odyssey x 202-6.

A PASSAGE of Homer comes to mind, where Hermes gave Odysseus a herb for his protection,
and showed what form it wore -
Black was its root, but milky-white the blossom that it bore.
The Immortals call it 'Moly' - to dig it where it springs
Is hard for a mortal man; but the Gods can do all things.1
Now are we to think this guest more like the god or the man? When he was young he learnt his herbs, as it were, becoming a doctor and practising as a psychiatrist; then he became a founding owner of a herb-conversion (or pharmaceutical) company, and it soon flourished so well that resources were available for Dr Sackler's beneficent spirit to range far and wide, in the United States and overseas.
It is time now to speak of the many opportunities he has presented to this University. He has set up in the names of himself and his wife a centre for young doctors who have research projects in mind; that is not a time of life when such aims are easy to sustain: the centre even takes care of the fees. Already over seventy young doctors have enjoyed its hospitality. Every year there is also a lecture, founded in his own and his wife's names and given by someone distinguished in the biomedical sciences, which Dr Sackler attends himself.
That he should be a benefactor to medicine is not entirely surprising. Our other beneficiary is astronomy. Again there is an annual lecture, founded in the same names, together with a lecture theatre; there is also an infra-red camera, devoted to the Deep Sky Initiative, built with such a power in it that very remote galaxies rather like our own Milky Way can be studied even as they develop. This is a very recent field of interest, attractive especially to young research astronomers: now it is open to them here.
I present to you a man of wide generosity, affection and interest,
RAYMOND SACKLER, Honorary K.B.E.

1 Translation by F. L. Lucas, sometime Fellow of King's College; published by the Folio Society in 1948.


SUNT quae Graece [greek] dicantur. uerbo nunc significatur elementum quo fit ut omni texturae carnis et imperet uis cerebri et debeat quid sibi feratur exterarum rerum noui. constare uero cerebrum e nihilo uidetur alio quam neuris eo ordine collocatis ut nuntios huc illuc mittendos curet. ut adolescit animal, ita ui neura crescunt sua. quali sint ea natura quoque modo in eis quibus est spina animalibus agant, id iamdiu ultra citra Atlanticum quaerit haec femina.
quaerendi primum opus accepit numerus cellularum quae sunt in muris adolescentis gangliis sitae possitne uariari: harum sunt milia non pauca. sequitur quaestio, in cerebro humano quomodo fiant ante partum ualles illae et anfractus: sed unde ei materies apta ad inuestigandum? deinde datur opus intellegendi textura dum crescit quomodo ad id loci accommodetur ubi debeat crescere: quibus texturis angustissime concisis in uitro ad usum seruatis argenti sale imbutis intima patefiunt. ouis pullorum utebatur, quae ne militiae quidem omnino defecerunt, sed impedita quod Iudaea erat gente quin publico munere fungeretur elaboratoriunculo sibi domi ornato clam studere pergebat. sic incepit opus praemio Nobeliano rite laudatum quo neurorum naturae causa patefieret.
rem plenius ipsa in libro conscripsit cui nomen iustissimum Laudes Virtutis Infectae dedit: nam cum res bene gestas tum moras errores incommoda narrat quae obstare inuestiganti solent; magis referre quam inuestigantis ingenium et sapientiam dicit haec, ut totum te dedas operi et difficultates ignorare soleas.
praesento uobis a Neurologiae Collegio Romae a Concilio Gentili Inuestigationum instituto
RITAM LEVI-MONTALCINI
THERE is a thing called a neurone, by which is meant the element which ensures that all living tissue is directed by the brain and provides that organ with knowledge of its environment. The brain thus deals with the conveyance of reports to and from the outside world, and it is entirely composed of neurones and of the structure in which they are supported. As the animal grows, so the neurone extends its connections. What neurones are like and how they operate in vertebrates has been the lifelong quest of this lady, and she has pursued her interest to and fro across the Atlantic.
Her first research project was to find out whether the number of cells in the sensory ganglia of developing mice can be conditioned. These cells are very numerous. Then she was invited to account for ante-natal development of convolutions in the human brain. There was a problem with supply of experimental material. Then came the task of understanding how tissue development is orchestrated by the environment in which growth is set to occur. These tissues could be dissected, manipulated in vitro, and stained with silver salts to reveal their secrets. She used chicken embryos; even in time of war they continued to be available. But she was forbidden as a Jew to hold a post in a state institution: so she equipped her own laboratory at home and studied on in secret. So began work, duly honoured with a Nobel prize, to reveal NGF: Nerve Growth Factor.
She has written the full tale herself in an autobiography called, with great appropriateness, 'In Praise of Imperfection'. She tells of her successes, but she tells also of the delays and distractions and the sheer mistakes which typically bedevil research; more important in a researcher than competence and cleverness are, she says, a total dedication to the task and a tendency to underestimate difficulties.
I present to you
RITA LEVI-MONTALCINI
of the Institute of Neurobiology of the National Research Council, Rome

QVI tibi maxime flos placet? qui tibi color? quod animal? taliumne meministis interrogatorum? animal hospes haec cum puella septuennis erat sibi quidem placitum respondit esse murem.
paruole mus, pingui forma sed corde pauenti,
multum tibi debet hoc saeculum, quippe qui magnitudinis es commodae, praegnationis breuis, uilis alimenti, humanae uitae denique ad condiciones inuestigandas aptissimus. illone tempore coniecerat quantum sibi profuturus esses? nam liberi quid insitum natura accipiant quid cultu et moribus educatum id semper huic curae et studio est, sed in experiendo quid fiat utitur muribus.
eorum qui ad experimenta gignuntur murium sex aliis aliis quinque sunt uertebrae lumborum: hoc per matrem fieri facile demonstrari poterat sed lacte an utero an ouo fecundato? necesse erat ad rem cernendam ut oua multo plura solito in utero insererentur: sunt quibus id magnae sit curae quippe qui seminibus in quaslibet manu introducendis studeant. tandem erat manifestum ut numerus in utero imponeretur: sunt quibus id sit magnae curae, cum ouum unius mulieris iam fecundum factum excipit altera in uterum suum.
nunc germinationem inquirit qui fiat ut haec cellula in ouum illa in semen uertatur. inde uideritis quam libenter ab experimentis in rem recurratur humanam. sed eadem periculum esse semper agnouit si quid audacius sit prolatum quam plebs gratum habere in usu uelit. multa multos igitur qua est prudentia monere solet, ne
optime consilia capta murium et mortalium
quoquouersus retrocedant.
praesento uobis Excellentissimi Ordinis Imperi Britannici Dominam Commendatricem, Societatis Regalis Sodalem, Collegiorum Regalis et Luciae Cavendish honoris causa Sociam, Collegi Christi Societati adscitam, Pacto Wellcome nomine et Instituto Cancri Inuestigandi Comitem Primam adscriptam
ANNAM LAVRAM MCLAREN
WHAT is your favourite flower? Your favourite colour? Your favourite animal? Do you remember those questionnaires? When Anne McLaren was seven years old, she answered that her favourite animal was the mouse.
Wee, sleekit, cowrin', tim'rous beastie,
this generation is much in your debt for your convenient size, your brief gestation period, your cheap upkeep and your great suitability for research into the conditions of human life. Had she guessed even then how important you were going to be to her? Her abiding interest is in the passage of heredity from mother to child and in the moments of critical influence: mice are the experimental material.
In mice bred for experiment, some have six lumbar vertebrae and some five. It was easy to show that this was due to maternal influence, but did it happen in the milk, or in the womb, or in the egg after fertilisation? In order to reach an answer, it was necessary to implant far more eggs than usual into the womb: this was of great interest to those concerned with artificial insemination. Eventually it was shown that the number of vertebrae was fixed in gestation and not at fertilisation: this is of great interest to women taking part in surrogate pregnancies.
Most recently she has been investigating what causes germ cells to turn into eggs or into sperm. As you can see, all this research activity very readily adverts to the human condition. This lady has always acknowledged the risks involved in publication of findings that are too much for popular acceptance. Hence her extensive work on advisory bodies, in case
the best laid plans o' mice an' men
gang aft agly.
I present to you
ANNE LAURA MCLAREN, D.B.E., F.R.S.,
Honorary Fellow of King's and of Lucy Cavendish Colleges, Fellow-Commoner of Christ's College, Principal Research Associate in the Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research Campaign Institute

AMPHITRYONIS antiquam esse fabulam audiueritis, qui redux a bello coniugem ab altero occupatam inuenerit. fabulam dixi: sed artem uita imitatur. nam recentius est haud dissimilis acta fabula, Martini reducis nomine: quem hominem quis esset quasque res gessisset diligenter inuestigatum memoriae rursus haec prodidit, femina dignissima quae Musarum uelut Dauis appelletur: nam non modo satis docendae fabulae fecit sed etiam libro dedit operam, quo scripto plurima non in scaena commode tractanda sed enarranda alioqui studentibusque pendenda patefecit.
enimuero maximam Musarum colit Clio, cuius monumenta in bibliothecis praecipue Gallicis seruata publici facit iuris. est ubi rem repertam tantum narrare uidetur, sed ne uos fabulatoris fefellerit lepos: ita enim narrat ut id quod refert inter narrandum exposuerit, nec timet opinionem interdum exprimere quae ad haec tempora sexumque spectat suum. conscripsit enim de secessionibus plebis operariae, de ui per ritum data, de feminis urbanis cultuque diuino conuerso, quae omnia forsitan magis e nostro orta quam praeterito aeuo esse uideantur. Si salutem fidemque nosmet, ait, inter ciuis aucturi sumus, minus oportebit de pace perditis hominibus imponenda cogitare quam de moribus ciuitatis ipsius conuertendis.
eo denique sapientiae peruenit ut in testimoniis quae minutus ille populus memoriae tradidit non fieri posse perceperit quin ut ab eis quodam modo ita a sese fabula fingeretur. iam manifestum erit quid uellet dicere cum uelut interrogata ipsa Musa, Egone Numa sum, ait, an Maccus?
interpretem rerum gestarum praesento uobis impigram sagacem benignam, Historiae sub nomine Henrici Caroli Lee in Vniuer-sitate Princetonensi Professorem emeritam, in Vniuersitatis Torontonensis Litterarum Comparatarum Instituto Sociam Seniorem,
NATALIAM ZEMON DAVIS
THE story of Amphitryo will surely be familiar: he came back from campaign and found his wife had been taken by another. Story I called it, but life imitates art. Since then, a rather similar tale has been performed, the returner's name being Martin Guerre. Who he was and what he did has been a topic of careful investigation and publication by this lady, and she can be most properly called a handmaid of the Muses: not only did she give help to those acting out the story but she also produced her own book, putting in it extensive material not well adapted to the screen but well worth the telling, and also worth the close attention of historians.
Chief of the Muses that she serves, as you can see, is Clio: history as stored principally in libraries in France is her métier. Sometimes her findings may seem to be presented as mere narration: do not be misled by her story-telling skills; she tells her tales in such a way that what matters is in the narrative, and she does not shun the occasional contemporary reference, including the rôle of women. She has written on 'Strikes and Salvation at Lyon', on 'The Rites of Violence' and on 'City Women and Religious Change'. Those are titles that could well seem to belong to the modern age rather than three or four centuries ago. 'If we try to increase safety and trust within a community,' she has said, 'we must think less about pacifying deviants and more about changing the central values'.
So deep has her understanding become that in working through the depositions made by the menu peuple she has realised some sort of fiction cannot be avoided, either in their records or in her account. Now it becomes clear what she meant by the question that she put virtually to History itself: 'Am I Solomon, or Marculf?'
I present to you an interpreter of history of great energy, shrewdness and generosity,
NATALIE ZEMON DAVIS,
Henry Charles Lee Professor Emeritus, Princeton University, Senior Fellow in the Centre for Comparative Literature in the University of Toronto

COLLEGI magister hic uir primo die muneris suscepti in horto uisus est
labefacta mouens robustus iugera fossor.1
neglectum enim inuenerat et pteridibus obductum; mox iridibus effecit insitis ut hortus in posterum annum uario splendore floreret. utinam eadem celeritate res forensis in melius uerti posset.
nam locum iuris inuestigandi docendique sibi elegit horridum quendam et confragosum: in administranda re publica qualibus caueretur principiis ut ne quid intercederet iniqui. quem locum multa per saecula pauci colebant, sed his centum annis, quanto magis leges de publicis et municipalibus rebus aucto numero genere impetu feruntur, eo magis in illud ius explicandum ordinandum dicendum opus est aperto.
huius uiri doctrinam et sapientiam collaudant alii, qui eius auspiciis fines explorant loci; opem et beneuolentiam alii, si cui reo de fandis nefandis facto adfuit testis; sed famae pars maxima in libris in commentariis in consiliis dandis pendet. librum illum de iure rei administrandae conscriptum iam septimum edit, citantque multi non domi modo sed etiam quacumque Britannicum ualebat imperium. sed quo tandem praeter, ut ipsius utar uerbis, in hac tota re uentum est quam ut aequo foedere ad id quod plebs accipere uelit imperium exercendum ratioque reddenda pendantur? qua re tamen nec uerius nec magis necessarium quicquam in iure nostro subest. ultima sint quae ipse uerba e doctissimo uiro protulit,
ante id quod placeat cuiuis discrimine prauo
aurea mensura iuris sit pertica recta.
praesento uobis Equitem Auratum, Doctorem in Iure, Academiae Britannicae Sodalem, Collegi Gonvilli et Cai Socium et quondam Magistrum, Collegi Sanctae et Indiuiduae Trinitatis honoris causa Socium, Iuris Anglici Rouse Ball Professorem emeritum,
HENRICUM GULIELMUM RAWSON WADE

1 Vergil Georgics ii 264.

EARLY on his first day as Master of his College, this man was sighted in the garden 'shifting the broken ground with sturdy stroke'. He had found it neglected and overgrown with bracken, but a quick planting of irises prepared a splendid show for the following year. If only the law were so swiftly improved!
Administrative law, the field in which he most worked and taught, was once a rough and untilled area. Few were interested in it, and even a basis was lacking for preventing unfairnesses. But in the last hundred years, as legislation affecting national and local government has burgeoned in quantity, variety and importance, so too the need has grown for openness in the law's organisation, analysis and delivery.
For some, especially his own colleagues and students, this man's scholarship and teaching will be his greatest achievement; for others, his help and generosity (when Clive Ponting was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act, he spoke for the defence); but his principal claim to fame lies in his books, his commentaries and his advice. His major work, the book on Administrative Law, is now in its seventh edition, and it is quoted frequently, not just in this country but throughout the Commonwealth. 'It comes to no more, in the last analysis,' (if I may quote his own words) 'than striking a balance between power and responsibility at a point which commends itself to public opinion. But nevertheless, there is no more genuine and necessary element in our law.' Let the last words be ones he quotes from Chief Justice Coke: 'The golden and straight metwand' of law must be opposed to 'the uncertain and crooked cord of discretion'.
I present to you
SIR HENRY WILLIAM RAWSON WADE, LL.D., Q.C., F.B.A.,
Fellow and formerly Master of Gonville and Caius College, Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Rouse Ball Professor of English Law Emeritus

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Cambridge University Reporter, 8 July 1998
Copyright © 1998 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.