st at table in Commons, and
I believe generally, wherever there was occasional precedence
allowed, it was very freely yielded to the higher of the class by
those who were below.

"The Freshman Class was, in my day at college, usually _placed_
(as it was termed) within six or nine months after their
admission. The official notice of this was given by having their
names written in a large German text, in a handsome style, and
placed in a conspicuous part of the College _Buttery_, where the
names of the four classes of undergraduates were kept suspended
until they left College. If a scholar was expelled, his name was
taken from its place; or if he was degraded (which was considered
the next highest punishment to expulsion), it was moved
accordingly. As soon as the Freshmen were apprised of their
places, each one took his station according to the new arrangement
at recitation, and at Commons, and in the Chapel, and on all other
occasions. And this arrangement was never afterward altered,
either in College or in the Catalogue, however the rank of their
parents might be varied. Considering how much dissatisfaction was
often excited by placing the classes (and I believe all other
colleges had laid aside the practice), I think that it was a
judicious expedient in Harvard to conform to the custom of putting
the names in _alphabetical_ order, and they have accordingly so
remained since the year 1772."--_Peirce's Hist. of Harv. Univ._,
pp. 308-811.

In his "Annals of Yale College," Ebenezer Baldwin observes on the
subject: "Doctor Dwight, soon after his election to the Presidency
[1795], effected various important alterations in the collegiate
laws. The statutes of the institution had been chiefly adopted
from those of European universities, where the footsteps of
monarchical regulation were discerned even in the walks of
science. So difficult was it to divest the minds of wise men of
the influence of venerable follies, that the printed catalogues of
students, until the year 1768, were arranged according to
respectability of parentage."--p. 147.

See DEGRADATION.

PLACET. Latin; literally, _it is pleasing_. In the University of
Cambridge, Eng., the term in which an _affirmative_ vote is given
in the Senate-House.

PLUCK. In the English universities, a refusal of testimonials for
a degree.

The origin of this word is thus stated in the Collegian's Guide:
"At the time of conferring a degree, just as the name of each m