HEREDITY AND RADIUM AT DUBLIN 191 



even reach the seed-ground for which they are intended, and 

 without which they cannot develop. 



Sometimes, perhaps, this is a good thing. Society, as repre- 

 sented by teetotalers and vegetarians, and Government as 

 represented by the Home Office, would not be induced to an 

 admiration of science as a practical staff by the Utopian logic of 

 Professor Ridgeway, who considers alcohol a necessary infliction 

 of our climate. 



The Education section again, which gathers its chief strength 

 from the ubiquitous energy of Prof. Armstrong, does not, out- 

 side his efforts, pretend to be scientific in any proper sense of 

 the word ; and in spite of the excellence and usefulness of the 

 debates, the cranks fly here like midges to a cuckoo-pint. The 

 chemists talked education, the agriculturists talked education, 

 the geologists talked education ; and the chief use of a very 

 popular section disappears completely, if more strictly scientific 

 sections do not recognise its claim to the subject and at the 

 same time free themselves of a burdensome duty. Efforts have 

 multiplied to make the Association more and more popular, 

 but after all the people are much more interested in real 

 contributions to scientific knowledge than in discursive speeches. 



A very informative struggle on this definition of the popular 

 was to be traced in the sub-section — which will probably soon 

 become Section M— devoted to Agriculture. Half the speakers 

 wandered over the whole field — agricultural education, co- 

 operation, housing, small holdings, and the rest. The other 

 half endeavoured to bring science and agriculture into touch. 

 Sir Horace Plunkett, the President, made a charming and a 

 very earnest speech. But his attitude was wholly economic. 

 His secretary was Mr. A. D. Hall, who, as head of Gilbert and 

 Lawes' farm at Rothamsted, represented the most specialised 

 agricultural science in this country. It is to be hoped that when 

 Section M comes into being, the Rothamsted point of view will 

 be taken. In this case, beyond all doubt, the more scientific 

 attitude is much more popular than the so-called popular 

 attitude, and only by attention to it will agriculture get much 

 benefit from the Association. 



