ÆGROTAT. Latin; literally, _he is sick_. In the English universities, a certificate from a doctor or surgeon, to the effect that a student has been prevented by illness from attending to his college duties, "though, commonly," says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, "the real complaint is much more serious; viz. indisposition of the mind! _ægrotat_ animo magis quam corpore." This state is technically called _ægritude_, and the person thus affected is said to be _æger_.--_The Etonian_, Vol. II. pp. 386, 387. To prove sickness nothing more is necessary than to send to some medical man for a pill and a draught, and a little bit of paper with _ægrotat_ on it, and the doctor's signature. Some men let themselves down off their horses, and send for an _ægrotat_ on the score of a fall.--_Westminster Rev._, Am. Ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 235. During this term I attended another course of Aristotle lectures, --but not with any express view to the May examination, which I had no intention of going in to, if it could be helped, and which I eventually escaped by an _ægrotat_ from my physician.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 198. Mr. John Trumbull well describes this state of indisposition in his Progress of Dullness:-- "Then every book, which ought to please, Stirs up the seeds of dire disease; Greek spoils his eyes, the print's so fine, Grown dim with study, and with wine; Of Tully's Latin much afraid, Each page he calls the doctor's aid; While geometry, with lines so crooked, Sprains all his wits to overlook it. His sickness puts on every name, Its cause and uses still the same; 'Tis toothache, colic, gout, or stone, With phases various as the moon, But tho' thro' all the body spread, Still makes its cap'tal seat, the head. In all diseases, 'tis expected, The weakest parts be most infected." Ed. 1794, Part I. p. 8. ÆGROTAT DEGREE. One who is sick or so indisposed that he cannot attend the Senate-House examination, nor consequently acquire any honor, takes what is termed an _Ægrotat degree_.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. II. p. 105. ALMA MATER, _pl._ ALMÆ MATRES. Fostering mother; a college or seminary where one is educated. The title was originally given to Oxford and Cambridge, by such as had received their education in either university. It must give pleasure to the alumni of the College to hear of his good name, as he [Benjamin Woodbridge] was the eldest son of our _alma mater_.--_Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ._, App., p. 57. I see the truths I have uttered, in relation to our _Almæ Matres_, assented to by sundry of their children.--_Terræ-Filius_, Oxford, p. 41.