10 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



classics does not exist, and the diflicnlty about iirst giving science 

 at all, and then extending it, has been largely fmancial. But 

 with encouragement of science at the universities and good 

 science teaching at the schools, as sttidents and scholars go out 

 into professions, businesses, and trades, this difficulty Avill disap- 

 pear in the more general appreciation of the value of science and 

 of the teaching of science. 



The universities will naturalh' be looked to to train men 

 of specialised scientific knowledge. Encouragement to train 

 these is given to a certain extent by the .State, in its employ- 

 ment of such, and it is hoped that the Union Government 

 will hesitate to adopt one easy method of economising in 

 times of depression, namely, to dismiss its scientists. In the 

 Transvaal a Geodetic Survey was being carried out ; at a 

 moment's notice all the men working on it were dismissed and the 

 work abandoned. Money was saved at the time, but the expense 

 of finishing this most useful work at any future time has been 

 largely increased ; a competent staff will have to be built up again, 

 its eqtiipment found again, and the apparatus standardised again. 

 Under the Cape (lovernment the Department of Marine Zoology, 

 which had been doing valuable work, was at one time for the 

 sake of economy practically blotted out. 



Nothing will prevent this sort of economy but the far more 

 general appreciation of the value of science I have already spoken 

 of. Men are wanted who " have such a knowledge of science 

 that will give them an intelligent respect for it, and an under- 

 standing of what it can do, how to make use of it, and to whom 

 to apply when special knowledge is required,"''' and these the 

 universities should send out into all kinds of work in South 

 Africa. 



It will be an advantage to a university tc^ liave faculties of 

 a])plicd science. For one thing it will at ]5resent be strengthened 

 greatly in making its influence felt in the community. The so- 

 called " practical " men are not unknown in South Africa " what 

 is practical to them is usuallv confined within the limits of 

 personal experience, instead of being permitted to fall within 

 the far wider limits of the experience of our race."t But the 

 practical man must be got into touch with the tmiversity, the gulf 

 which usually separates him from it must be bridged ; be nuist be 

 led to see that " there is hardly a branch of trade or commerce 

 which does not depend, more or less directly, tij^on some depart- 

 ment or other of ])hysical science, which does not involve, for 

 its successful pursuit, reasoning from scientific data."$ Now 

 at ])resent he does see the need for training on the part of 

 doctors and engineers, and ])r()l)al)l\' admits that some ]n\re 

 science, even though not obviously required in practical life, is of 

 real value to them. If a university has faculties of medicine and 



♦From memorandum on "The NeRJcct of Science." signed by 36 dis- 

 tinpftiislied scientist.s. 



t Report of the Carncyie Institiilidii of A\"ashinji;ton. 1915. 

 t Professor Tluxley, 1887. 



