NOTES 595 



support. Men of science must abandon once and for all the idea 

 that the newspapers can be induced to publish articles of the 

 type that could be derived from the evidence of such Blue Books 

 as the Report of the Vivisection Commission. The historical 

 article is a thing of the past, and the history of scientific achieve- 

 ment can only find a place in the columns of a paper in connec- 

 tion with Centenary Celebrations and public events of current 

 interest. To give an illustration. It is of no use to ask the 

 editor of a daily paper to publish afresh the dramatic story of 

 the victory over yellow fever. It is true that nine-tenths of the 

 public are entirely ignorant of it, but the experience of the 

 journalist shows that that same nine-tenths will not read it if it 

 comes before them in the form of an independent article. When 

 the Panama Canal, however, is opened to traffic the public will 

 wish to read of how that engineering feat has been accomplished 

 and it will then be possible for the daily papers to deal with such 

 a subject as that of yellow fever in a way that the public will 

 read. With the way cleared by the ruling out of the article of 

 the historic type, one may consider in what way newspaper 

 co-operation can be looked for. The essential thing to remember 

 is that the primary function of the newspaper is to disseminate 

 news, and that if the work of science is to be reported it must be 

 done in the guise of news. 



At the present time few of the learned societies or institu- 

 tions attempt to co-operate with the correspondents of news- 

 papers. And yet from time to time each of these societies has 

 before it papers that are of great public interest, papers, that is 

 to say, which chronicle an advance in some direction and that 

 by careful handling can be brought into relation with the stock 

 of ideas possessed by the ordinary reader. It is within the 

 knowledge of the secretaries of the societies when such papers 

 are to be read ; but I believe there is not a single case where the 

 governing body of a society or an institution has made it an 

 instruction to its secretary to look out for the reading of such 

 papers and to warn the press that there will be news for them if 

 they care to attend. 



While the majority of the scientific societies are self-support- 

 ing organisations, and therefore under no obligation to the press, 

 the same is not the case with the majority of the great scientific 

 institutions. These are supported largely by public funds, the 

 money being derived from the Government, from local authorities, 



