NOTES 



123 



Austria's) powers of production will be required to restore the material damage 

 they have wickedly done." He places himself also in opposition to the ideal of 

 Australia and Canada of a self-contained Commonwealth, which Colonial ideal 

 "arises from a false notion of what trade is." He closes with these words: 

 * Britain's stability in the future, as in the past, will flow from continued honesty 

 and fair play, and her material success from consideration of the interests of the 

 whole world as well as her own." 



The Man of Science in the Community of To-day is the subject of the 

 Presidential Address of Prof. D. Fraser Harris, M.D., CM., D.Sc, F.R.S.E., 

 F.R.S.C., to the Nova Scotian Institute of Science, delivered November 13, 1916. 

 It is the plea for the recognition of science by State and people with which every 

 one is now familiar. The following excerpt embodies, however, a somewhat new 

 suggestion : " Science, in short, must have a Department, a Government Office, 

 before the public will fully accord it its place of honour. We may regret that this 

 sort of thing has to be, but our regret will not change public opinion ; and it 

 appears to be part of the British Constitution that nothing can be done or should 

 be done without a very large body of public opinion behind it. But the official 

 recognition of science cannot wait until the public has seen fit to render science 

 the homage it deserves. To begin at the top, let there be a Minister of Science 

 and a Ministry of Science with just as much prestige accorded it as the War 

 Office, the Foreign Office, or the Home Office. The duties of the Minister of 

 Science would be primarily to foster science in every way possible, to foster its 

 interests, to administer its affairs somewhat after the manner in which the Board 

 of Trade looks after trade, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, agriculture 

 and fisheries." 



Collectors of coins will find special interest in Vol. II, Part I, of the Trans- 

 actions of the Yorkshire Numismatic Society, which contains a well-illustrated 

 article by its editor, Thomas Sheppard, M.Sc, F.G.S., on " Medals, Tokens, etc., 

 issued in Connection with William Wilberforce and the Abolition of Slavery," and 

 "The Circulated Copper and Bronze Pence of Queen Victoria, 1837-1901," by 

 J. F. Musham, F.E.S. The East Riding Antiquarian Society Transactions, 

 Vol. XXI, of which Mr. Sheppard is the Secretary, publishes articles on the 

 restoration work done in St. Mary's Parish Church, Scarborough, and a short 

 account of that church, which will form pleasant reading for most people as well 

 as for antiquarians. 



This and That (The Editor) 



No event of great importance as regards the Affairs of Science has occurred 

 during the quarter. Science in education continues to preoccupy many, and good 

 speeches on the subject were delivered at the annual meeting of the British Science 

 Guild (page 118) by Lord Sydenham, the new President, by Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, 

 President of the Board of Education, and by Mr. H. G. Wells. Prof. D. Fraser 

 Harris, M.D., gave an excellent address, partly on the subject, last November in 

 his inaugural address as President of the Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia (copy 

 recently to hand) ; and Sir Alfred Bourne, F.R.S., gave a similar one before the 

 Indian Science Congress in January (Nature, March 22). The Cambridge Uni- 

 versity Press has recently published a book of essays, called Science and the 

 Nation, all written by distinguished men of science and edited by the Master of 

 Downing (Mr. A. C. Seward, F.R.S.), with an introduction by Lord Moulton ; and 

 this work was ably reviewed by Mr. Wells in Nature (April 19). 



