NOTES 657 



yet use the ideas in their own work — which I hope seldom happens, but which 

 nevertheless may just possibly occur. Why not adopt a perfectly open attitude 

 throughout — compel the referees to give their opinions within a week, and acquaint 

 the author with their names and their reasons for rejecting or accepting ? 



The final result of its rules is that the Society does not receive as many papers 

 as it should do. Thus the whole of its Proceedings during the last fifteen years 

 occupies only two shelves of my book-cases — surely a somewhat small output for 

 such an important institution (to which we subscribe £3 a year). It is openly 

 said that very original articles are seldom submitted to the Royal Society, just for 

 fear of such delay and rejection ; and I am certain that the best scientific article 

 which I for one ever wrote would never have had a chance of publication by the 

 Royal Society. I have such respect for the Society that I would like to see a root 

 and branch change made in this matter, and believe that many other Fellows 

 agree with me. 



The same remarks will apply to some other learned societies— which appear to 

 attach more importance to their own dignity than to progress in the subjects with 

 which they deal. And very similar remarks were actually made before the 

 Royal Society itself in 1904 by Mr. J. W. Buchanan, F.R.S., a risumi of which 

 will be found in his fine new book, Comptes Rendus (University Press, Cambridge, 

 191 7). He compares the procedure of the Royal Society with that of the French 

 Academy of Sciences, and points out that in the latter Fellows have a right 

 to fifty pages annually in the publications of the Academy, and that "the 

 communication, reading, and publication of a paper presented to the Academy 

 is . . '. an affair of the inside of a week, and it is a certainty." These remarks 

 were made before the Royal Society thirteen years ago, and yet nothing has been 

 done. We British do not appear quite to appreciate how fast we are losing 

 credit throughout the world by our apparent incapacity to correct abuses, 

 however clear they may be and whatever trouble they may cause. 



R. R. 



The Association of Public School Science Masters (C. L. Bryant, The 

 School, Harrow) 



The seventeenth annual general meeting of this Association took place at Eton 

 on January 3 and 4. The discussions were well attended and sustained in view of 

 the interest recently taken in the position of science in education. There was an 

 exhibition of apparatus by members of the Association in the spacious laboratories 

 of the College. In this, exhibits of materials, apparatus, and books used in the 

 teaching of military subjects in schools formed a prominent part ; and Mr. J. 

 Christie (Eton) gave demonstrations with a magnificent collection of physical 

 apparatus. 



Prof. H. H. Turner presided throughout the discussions as well as during the 

 more social part of the meeting. In his opening address he spoke of the difficul- 

 ties in the way of modern-day research. First of all there was the difficulty of 

 finding careers for investigators. It was not that there was insufficient work to be 

 done— work was less likely to fail than workers — for with every advance in know- 

 ledge new fields for research were discovered. As an example of work which 

 urgently needed doing he instanced the survey of our Empire, geodetically, 

 magnetically, gravitationally, bathymetrically, and in other ways ; and there were 

 forestry and fisheries and various kinds of industrial research. But the difficulty 

 lay in the uncertainty in the minds of young men qualified to take up the work of 

 investigation as to their prospects in life. To remedy this he suggested the 

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