MATHEMATICAL SLATE.  At Harvard College, the best mathematician received in former times a large slate, which, on leaving college, he gave to the best mathematician in the next class, and thus transmitted it from class to class.  The slate disappeared a few years since, and the custom is no longer observed.

MATRICULA.  A roll or register, from matrix.  In colleges the register or record which contains the names of the students, times of entering into college, remarks on their character, &c.

The remarks made in the Matricula of the College respecting those who entered the Freshman Class together with him are, of one, that he “in his third year went to Philadelphia College.”—­Hist.  Sketch of Columbia College, p. 42.

Similar brief remarks are found throughout the Matricula of King’s College.—­Ibid., p. 42.

We find in its Matricula the names of William Walton, &c.—­Ibid., p. 64.

MATRICULATE.  Latin, Matricula, a roll or register, from matrix.  To enter or admit to membership in a body or society, particularly in a college or university, by enrolling the name in a register.—­Wotton.

In July, 1778, he was examined at that university, and matriculated.—­Works of R.T.  Paine, Biography, p. xviii.

In 1787, he matriculated at St. John’s College,
Cambridge.—­Household Words, Vol.  I. p. 210.

MATRICULATE.  One enrolled in a register, and thus admitted to membership in a society.—­Arbuthnot.

The number of Matriculates has in every instance been greater than that stated in the table.—­Cat.  Univ. of North Carolina, 1848-49.

MATRICULATION.  The act of registering a name and admitting to membership.—­Ayliffe.

In American colleges, students who are found qualified on examination to enter usually join the class to which they are admitted, on probation, and are matriculated as members of the college in full standing, either at the close of their first or second term.  The time of probation seldom exceeds one year; and if at the end of this time, or of a shorter, as the case may be, the conduct of a student has not been such as is deemed satisfactory by the Faculty, his connection with the college ceases.  As a punishment, the matriculation certificate of a student is sometimes taken from him, and during the time in which he is unmatriculated, he is under especial probation, and disobedience to college laws is then punished with more severity than at other times.—­Laws Univ. at Cam., Mass., 1848, p. 12. Laws Yale Coll., 1837, p. 9.

MAUDLIN.  The name by which Magdalen College, Cambridge, Eng., is always known and spoken of by Englishmen.

The “Maudlin Men” were at one time so famous for tea-drinking, that the Cam, which licks the very walls of the college, is said to have been absolutely rendered unnavigable with tea-leaves.—­Alma Mater, Vol.  II. p. 202.