THE RELATIONSHIP OF MINING TO 



SCIENCE 



By W. E. LISHMAN, M.A., M.Inst.M.E. 



The meetings of the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science always leave behind them food for reflection, and last 

 year's meeting has been no exception. 



The ordinary observer will, in all probability, have been 

 struck by the fact that these meetings, the embodiment in the 

 highest degree of our national, and, we may say, of our Imperial 

 investigations in the realm of science, are year by year becoming 

 more and more concerned with our industrial and economical 

 aspirations. Last year especially have we had (in addition to 

 purely speculative and technical subjects) excursions into 

 matters ranging from Education, the Unemployed, Railway 

 Management, the Steam Turbine, down to questions of dietary 

 and coffee-making, and a host of other allied and unallied 

 subjects, — all contributed to by persons competent to handle their 

 subject in a more or less masterly fashion. Radium nowadays 

 always commands a respectful hearing. There is something 

 comforting in the thought that this globe of ours, and the sun 

 which shines upon it, may yet be spared to us for another few 

 million years. But other matters of a purely scientific nature 

 have also engrossed attention ; and, although we may be tempted, 

 at times, to question whether the hitherto high level of scientific 

 thought is being fully maintained, there is, I think, no evidence 

 to the contrary. 



Nevertheless, the question does arise, and it is worth the 



asking, how far it is advisable that science and industry should 



meet on the same plane, and that plane the platform of the 



British Association ; whether, that is, pure science should step 



down from its lofty pedestal and indulge in overtures with the 



more mundane affairs of social and industrial welfare. Is it in 



the highest interests of science that it should be so ? 



This involves the further question, which we cannot here go 



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