22 Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute 



The waste of brain in this world is a tragedy of the first order. There 

 is no4ie greater. This was brought home to us with pecuHar emphasis 

 during the war. When Moseley was killed at Gallipoli scientists every- 

 where felt a sharp pang. Here was a young man who had crossed the 

 threshold. He had just had time to prove his genius. Almost at his 

 first attempt he left his imprint on the science of physics and great things 

 v,ere expected of him. His sudden cutting off did a great violence to 

 the sense of the fitness of things in the minds of those who knew what 

 a loss it meant to science. The toll of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 

 the war was in the neighbourhood of 2,000. Of these some had already 

 been productive and others gave great promise. The most gifted of 

 our young men went overseas and many of them will never return. 

 Among the latter were two of gold medallist standing in my own Depart- 

 ment. The sacrifice of a young man of exceptional ability seems to 

 accentuate the unreason and injustice of warfare. Why should he not 

 have been permitted to fulfil his natural destiny, to lead an intellectually 

 productive life and perhaps add a permanent increment to the heritage 

 of the race? Yet the same sacrifice of exceptional gifts, the same 

 waste of brain power, is going on regularly in our midst in peace times 

 and we pay no attention to it. What is possible in this regard I have 

 illustrated by the history of mathematics in America. Successive 

 generations of potential mathematicians were wiped out. They never 

 knew what struck them. Their contemporaries never knew that nature 

 intended them to be mathematicians. The story of the Dockyard 

 Schools is full of suggestion as to the waste that must be going on. We 

 pause to think when we hear of a man like George Green, who was 

 discovered at 40, graduated at Cambridge at 44, and died at 48, after 

 leaving his permanent mark on the history of mathematics and physics. 

 It is said that his later years were saddened by the realization of the 

 fact that the greater part of his life had been wasted. How many 

 George Greens are there who die before 40? How many who are not 

 discovered before 48? 



There is no general formula which will enable us to avoid all waste 

 of brain but we should endeavour in every possible way to salvage all 

 we can. It would, no doubt, be helpful to have the advantages of a 

 university or higher technical education presented from different view- 

 points to the pupils in the secondary schools, preferably by visiting 

 lecturers. Their studies, too, should include something of a biographical 

 or narrative character touching on the lives and work of the great 

 scientists. This might even with advantage be introduced into the 

 elementary schools. Matter could readily be selected which would not 

 be lacking in romance. 



