September 2, 

 « 



1920] 



NATURE 



13 



University, representing- the American Associa- 

 tion) ; Prof. A. Gilson (Louvain, Belgium) ; Prof. 

 R. \V. Hegner (Dept. Medical Zoology, Johns 

 Hopkins University) ; Prof. F. Jaeger (Groningen) ; 

 Prof. C. \. Kofoid (University of California) ; 

 Prof. Graham Lusk (Cornell University Medical 

 College) ; Dr. Naser (representing the Inter- 

 national Students' Union, University of Copen- 

 hagen); Don G. J. de Osma (Madrid); and 

 Yoshimaro T^inaka (Japan). The General Com- 

 mittee has resolved that national associations for 

 the advancement of science shall in future be in- 

 vited to send representatives to meetings of the 

 British .Association. 



The new members of the Council are : — Mr. 

 Joseph Barcroft, Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner, Sir 

 Daniel Hall, Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, and Sir 

 W. J. Pope. 



Next year's meeting at Edinburgh, under the 

 p'residency of Sir Edward Thorpe, will be from 

 \Vednesday, .September 7, to Wednesday, Sep- 

 tember 14. In the following year the meeting 

 will be held at Hull, an invitation tendered by the 

 Lord Mayor and the Town Clerk of that city 

 having been unanimously accepted by the General 

 Committee. N'o further meetings were actually 

 arranged at Cardiff, but there is a possibility that 

 the meeting in 1923 will be in another northern 

 city, and invitations have been received to meet 

 in Canada in 1924. 



Dr. R. \'. Stanford, secretary of the Press and 

 Publicity Sub-Committee at Cardiff, who acted 

 as our local correspondent for the meeting, has 

 .sent us the following statement, which merits the 

 attention of the Council of the .Association and of 

 local committees organising the annual meet- 

 ings. Wc are sure that, in making these com- 

 ments. Dr. Stanford is as desirous of increasing 

 public interest in the work of the Association as 

 wc are in publishing it. 



" It is difficult to resist taking this opportunity 

 to make one or two observations, though in pro- 

 posing to offer any criticisms of such a great and 

 venerable institution as the British Association 

 one has rather the feelings of a curate meditating 

 a mild attack on his bishop. There are many 

 members of the Association who are of the opinion 

 that some changes in its policy are not only 

 desirable, but are also rapidly becoming inevitable. 

 Now is the time to take stock of the position, for 

 the recent meeting at Cardiff was really the first 

 normal post-war meeting. The Bournemouth 

 meeting could scarcely be called so, because of its 

 situation and of the very general curiosity regard- 

 ing war secrets. It is, therefore, rather dis- 

 appointing to find the membership no greater. 

 What is more disappointing still is that the prin- 

 cipal reason for this is the apathy of l(xal people 

 of the educated classes to the presence of the 

 Association. The plain fact remains that it is the 

 exception to find anyone who has even heard of 

 the .Association. Is this regrettable state of affairs 

 due to something lacking in these individuals 

 themselves, or is the blame to be laid at the door 

 of the AsscH-iation? It certainly is not peculiar to 

 Cardiff. 



NO. 2653, VOL. 106] 



" Everyone will agree that the Association serves 

 three main purposes, namely, to furnish oppor- 

 tunity for scientific workers themselves to get in 

 touch with men working on allied subjects, to try 

 to encourage research, and (what some of us 

 think most important of all) to make scientific 

 knowledge accessible to the general public. It 

 may very well be maintained that the first two of 

 these purposes are being very much better served 

 than the third. Some lay organ of the Press 

 referred to this Cardiff meeting as a ' jamboree 

 of science. ' So it was — for the scientific men. 

 But if we were the scouts, where were the de- 

 lighted parents, who should be such a feature of 

 the entertainment? The point of this analogy 

 is that while the scientific men themselves had 

 four whole days in twelve sections to meet each 

 other and discuss matters in a way of little in- 

 telligibility to anyone but themselves, the educated 

 man in the street could only expect a couple of 

 evening discourses to interest him, with a possi- 

 bility of three more if there was room. The local 

 Press reported the meetings astonishingly well, 

 but such reports, however widely they may be 

 read, do not take the place of a full lecture. 



" The importance of scientific work will never be 

 recognised adequately by the general public until 

 they are better instructed as to the practical 

 results which are to be expected from it, and 

 this end can be reached only by the leaders of 

 scientific thought and discovery going out of their 

 way to show the ordinary man that he has a per- 

 sonal interest in the matter. It cannot be pre- 

 tended that this result is properly secured by five 

 lectures during the whole meeting. We should 

 like to have seen fifty of them, and to have seen 

 them delivered, not to the scientific, but to the 

 non-scientific, public. What is being suggested 

 is not a return to what might be called the lecture 

 habit of the Victorian period, often a perfectly 

 useless type of scientific conjuring entertainment. 

 It is also not necessarily implied that they shall 

 be delivered in the largest hall in the district : 

 sectional meeting rooms would do in many 

 cases. 



"Some change in this direction has been referred 

 to above as desirable, and also as inevitable. 

 The inevitability arises from the need which is 

 bound to be felt by the .Association of increasing 

 its membership, and consequently its financial 

 resources, rather than the reverse. There are cer- 

 tainly some points that might be thought of, which 

 would result, for example, in a considerable re- 

 duction of expenditure for the meeting, and that is 

 a matter which cannot be neglected in these days 

 of high wages and long prices, either by the 

 Association or by its hosts from year to year. A 

 great saving of time and trouble would be effected 

 by the adoption of some method of getting .^n idea 

 before the meeting as to how many people were 

 coming. This might be done by adding a sur- 

 charge to the price of any ticket.s sold after a 

 certain date. The same consideration applies to 

 excursions : it is easy to lose considerable sums 

 in the way of guarantees for motor transport and 

 meals." 



