PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 5 



Fortunately, Dr. Roberts was able to complete the work of 

 20 years before the financial crisis arrived, but Dr. Duerden had 

 to be content with regrets that for financial reasons the Council 

 was unable to authorise payment of his grant, so that tortoises 

 would have to be investigated without the assistance of the Asso- 

 ciation. 



Money must be found for a research fund if the x\ssocia- 

 tion is to justify its existence. Certain of our Cape Town 

 friends suffer from a super-sensitiveness, and consider it undig- 

 nified ior a Science Association to make an appeal for such a 

 sordid thing as money. Their Johannesburg- colleagues do not 

 share their modesty. It has only been by such appeals that the 

 Association has been kept from extinction during the past few 

 years. Those who acquire in a business capacity the fruits of 

 science, and make fortunes commercially from the efforts of 

 scientific men, should consider it an honour to be allowed to con- 

 tribute from their accumulated wealth. 



The American Association for the Advancement of Science 

 has a permanent fund of nearly 100,000 dollars, the income from 

 which is appropriated to aid research. It was fotmded 70 3'ears 

 ago, and, with a total membership of nearly 11,000, its annual 

 meetings constitute the largest and most important gatherings 

 of scientific men held in any part of the world. And yet it docs 

 not hesitate to make direct appeals for members and money. 



An appeal in connection with the New York meeting of 

 December, 19 16, says : " Contemporary history has made evident 

 to all the dominant ])]ace of science in modern life, and has, at 

 the same time, placed upon us the responsibility of leadership. 

 New York City may become the world's financial centre ; it is 

 even more important to us as a nation that the New York meet- 

 ing of the Association shall signalise the period at which our 

 comitry becomes the most fruitful centre of scientific research. 

 The applications of science, by doubling the length of life and 

 ({uadrupling the productivity od labour, have made possible 

 universal education and ec|uality of opportunity. Science and 

 education ha\e given us democracy; it is the duty and privilege 

 of democracy to repay its debt by forwarding science and educa- 

 tion to a degree not hitherto known in the world's history." 



" Science can only be stipported in a democracy as the result 

 of the organisation of scientific men. We cannot depend upon a 

 leisured class, as has been the case in luigland, nor upon govern- 

 mental organisation, as has been the case in Germany. Science, 

 with its applications, has given the world its vast wealth, but the 

 results of research, being for the benefit of all, and not, as a 

 rule, for an individual or group, must be paid for by society. 

 Scientific research is purchasable, but it must be supported by 

 endowments or by national. State, and municipal appropriations. 

 The career of the scientific man must l)e made attractive in order 

 that able men may follow it. Science requires recniits, and it 

 requires money. These are only to be obtained by impressing 

 the public, the press, and the Government with the supreme im- 



