New regulations came into force[72] in 1839. The examination now lasted for six days, and continued as before for five hours and a half each day: eight and a half hours were assigned to problems. Throughout the whole examination the same papers were set to all candidates, and no reference was made to any preliminary classes. It was no doubt in accordance with the spirit of these changes that the acts in the schools should be abolished, but they were discontinued by the moderators of 1839 without the authority of the senate. The examination was for the future confined[73] to mathematics. In the same year in which the new scheme came into force a proposal to reopen the subject was rejected on 6 March 1839. The difficulty of bringing professorial lectures into relation with the needs of students has more than once been before the University. The desirability of it was emphasized by a syndicate in February 1843, which recommended conferences at stated intervals between the mathematical professors and examiners. This report, which foreshadowed the creation of a Mathematical Board, was rejected by the senate on 31 March. A few years later the scheme of the examination was again reconstructed by regulations[74] which came into effect in 1848. The duration of the examination was extended to eight days. The examination lasted in all forty-four and a half hours, twelve of which were devoted to problems. The first three days were assigned to specified elementary subjects; in the papers set on these days riders were to be set as well as bookwork, but the methods of analytical geometry and the calculus were excluded. After the first three days there was a short interval, at the end of which the examiners issued a list of those who had so acquitted themselves as to deserve mathematical honours. Only those whose names were contained in this list were admitted to the last five days of the examination, which was devoted to the higher parts of mathematics. After the conclusion of the examination the examiners, taking into account the whole eight days, brought out the list arranged in order of merit. No provision was made for any rearrangement of this list corresponding to the examination of the brackets. The arrangements of 1848 remained in force till 1873. In the same year as these regulations came into force, a Board of Mathematical Studies (consisting of the mathematical professors, with the moderators and examiners for the current year and the two preceding years) was constituted[75] by the senate. From that time forward their minutes supply a permanent record of the changes gradually introduced into the tripos. I do not allude to subsequent changes which only concern unimportant details of the examination.