THE FUTURE OF THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION 



The question is often asked, both among scientific men and by 

 the general public, Of what use is the British Association — does 

 it any longer possess functions which justify its existence ? It 

 is easy to suggest that it has become nothing more than a kind 

 of glorified picnic, attended by some men of science as a shoppy 

 holiday at which they can put in a certain amount of advertising, 

 and by a miscellaneous camp following who look for cheap 

 entertainments to support the boredom of keeping in touch with 

 the development of modern thought. Real science, the critics 

 say, is discussed elsewhere ;• they point convincingly to the 

 fact that no investigator presents his discoveries to the world 

 through the medium of its Annual Report. Of course the cynics 

 have some justification: there is a cheap and nasty, even a greedy 

 side to the British Association, just as there is to everything 

 else that is big when viewed close at hand ; but it is a narrow 

 mind that can see nothing else in these annual meetings. Indeed 

 it would be more correct to say that though this attitude was 

 not uncommon among men of science a dozen years ago, it has 

 been wearing away and has given place to a renewed sense of 

 the value of a general gathering of men attached to all branches 

 of knowledge. Science gets more and more specialised every 

 year and in their working term men can barely find time to 

 keep in touch with their own branch of the subject ; they 

 have found that it is good to exchange experiences with the 

 inhabitants of other worlds which do interpenetrate, though 

 for economy's sake in a too complex existence we habitually 

 ignore their existence. It is the informal meetings that count, 

 the hints and suggestions that are caught in conversation when 

 botanist and chemist, physicist and physiologist gather together 

 in smoke-room or lounge ; even controversies which have become 

 embittered upon paper begin to clear over coffee and a cigarette. 

 It was ably argued at the Sheffield meeting that this turn in the 

 opinion among scientific men has come since the inauguration 



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