MAX.  Abbreviated for maximum, greatest.  At Union College, he who receives the highest possible number of marks, which is one hundred, in each study, for a term, is said to take Max (or maximum); to be a Max scholar.  On the Merit Roll all the Maxs are clustered at the top.

A writer remarks jocosely of this word.  It is “that indication of perfect scholarship to which none but Freshmen aspire, and which is never attained except by accident.”—­Sophomore Independent, Union College, Nov. 1854.

Probably not less than one third of all who enter each new class confidently expect to “mark max,” during their whole course, and to have the Valedictory at Commencement.—­Ibid.

See MERIT ROLL.

MAY.  At the University of Cambridge, Eng., the college Easter term examination is familiarly spoken of as the May.

The “May” is one of the features which distinguishes Cambridge from Oxford; at the latter there are no public College examinations.—­Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 64.

As the “May” approached, I began to feel nervous.—­Ibid., p. 70.

MAY TRAINING.  A correspondent from Bowdoin College where the farcical custom of May Training is observed writes as follows in reference to its origin:  “In 1836, a law passed the Legislature requiring students to perform military duty, and they were summoned to appear at muster equipped as the law directs, to be inspected and drilled with the common militia.  Great excitement prevailed in consequence, but they finally concluded to train.  At the appointed time and place, they made their appearance armed cap-a-pie for grotesque deeds, some on foot, some on horse, with banners and music appropriate, and altogether presenting as ludicrous a spectacle as could easily be conceived of.  They paraded pretty much ‘on their own hook,’ threw the whole field into disorder by their evolutions, and were finally ordered off the ground by the commanding officer.  They were never called upon again, but the day is still commemorated.”

M.B.  An abbreviation for Medicinae Baccalaureus, Bachelor of Physic.  At Cambridge, Eng., the candidate for this degree must have had his name five years on the boards of some college, have resided three years, and attended medical lectures and hospital practice during the other two; also have attended the lectures of the Professors of Anatomy, Chemistry, and Botany, and the Downing Professor of Medicine, and passed an examination to their satisfaction.  At Oxford, Eng., the degree is given to an M.A. of one year’s standing, who is also a regent of the same length of time.  The exercises are disputations upon two distinct days before the Professors of the Faculty of Medicine.  The degree was formerly given in American colleges before that of M.D., but has of late years been laid aside.