In the revised laws of Harvard College, printed in the year 1790, was one for the purpose of introducing examinations, the first part of which is as follows: "To animate the students in the pursuit of literary merit and fame, and to excite in their breasts a noble spirit of emulation, there shall be annually a public examination, in the presence of a joint committee of the Corporation and Overseers, and such other gentlemen as may be inclined to attend it." It then proceeds to enumerate the times and text-books for each class, and closes by stating, that, "should any student neglect or refuse to attend such examination, he shall be liable to be fined a sum not exceeding twenty shillings, or to be admonished or suspended." Great discontent was immediately evinced by the students at this regulation, and as it was not with this understanding that they entered college, they considered it as an _ex post facto_ law, and therefore not binding upon them. With these views, in the year 1791, the Senior and Junior Classes petitioned for exemption from the examination, but their application was rejected by the Overseers. When this was declared, some of the students determined to stop the exercises for that year, if possible. For this purpose they obtained six hundred grains of tartar emetic, and early on the morning of April 12th, the day on which the examination was to begin, emptied it into the great cooking boilers in the kitchen. At breakfast, 150 or more students and officers being present, the coffee was brought on, made with the water from the boilers. Its effects were soon visible. One after another left the hall, some in a slow, others in a hurried manner, but all plainly showing that their situation was by no means a pleasant one. Out of the whole number there assembled, only four or five escaped without being made unwell. Those who put the drug in the coffee had drank the most, in order to escape detection, and were consequently the most severely affected. Unluckily, one of them was seen putting something into the boilers, and the names of the others were soon after discovered. Their punishment is stated in the following memoranda from a manuscript journal. "Exhibition, 1791. April 20th. This morning Trapier was rusticated and Sullivan suspended to Groton for nine months, for mingling tartar emetic with our commons on ye morning of April 12th." "May 21st. Ely was suspended to Amherst for five months, for assisting Sullivan and Trapier in mingling tartar emetic with our commons." Another student, who threw a stone into the examination-room, which struck the chair in which Governor Hancock sat, was more severely punished. The circumstance is mentioned in the manuscript referred to above as follows:--