In 1817 Peacock, who was moderator, introduced the symbols for differentiation into the papers set in the senate-house examination; his colleague, however, continued to use the fluxional notation. Peacock himself wrote on 17 March 1817 (_i.e._ shortly after the examination) on the subject as follows[63]: I assure you ... that I shall never cease to exert myself to the utmost in the cause of reform, and that I will never decline any office which may increase my power to effect it. I am nearly certain of being nominated to the office of Moderator in the year 1818-19, and as I am an examiner in virtue of my office, for the next year I shall pursue a course even more decided than hitherto, since I shall feel that men have been prepared for the change, and will then be enabled to have acquired a better system by the publication of improved elementary books. I have considerable influence as a lecturer, and I will not neglect it. It is by silent perseverance only that we can hope to reduce the many-headed monster of prejudice, and make the University answer her character as the loving mother of good learning and science. In 1818 all candidates for honours, that is, all men in the first six preliminary classes, were allowed to attempt the problems: this change was made by the moderators. In 1819 Peacock, who was again moderator, induced his colleague to adopt the new notation. It was employed in the next year by Whewell, and in the following year by Peacock again. Henceforth the calculus in its modern language and analytical methods were freely used, new subjects were introduced, and for many years the examination provided a mathematical training fairly abreast of the times. By this time the disputations had ceased to have any immediate effect on a man's place in the tripos. Thus Whewell[64], writing about his duties as moderator in 1820, said: You would get very exaggerated ideas of the importance attached to it [an Act] if you were to trust Cumberland; I believe it was formerly more thought of than it is now. It does not, at least immediately, produce any effect on a man's place in the tripos, and is therefore considerably less attended to than used to be the case, and in most years is not very interesting after the five or six best men: so that I look for a considerable exercise of, or rather demand for, patience on my part. The other part of my duty in the Senate House consists in manufacturing wranglers, senior optimes, etc. and is, while it lasts, very laborious. Of the examination itself in this year he wrote as follows[65]: