September i6, 1920] 



NATURE 



71 



be essential for a speaker at a joint meeting of 

 sections to accept this standard, yet if he wishes 

 to daim the close attention of most of his hearers 

 he should not soar so much above it as is com- 

 monly done. 



What we have said as to the intensive and 

 extensive functions of sections of the Association 

 is on behalf of the general members, who are 

 ingaged in scientific education or research. No one 

 waits for an annual meeting of the Association in 

 order to describe a new discovery or announce a 

 development, and as the Association does not 

 publish papers, except by special resolution, there 

 is nothing to induce authors, if they wish their 

 wi>rk to be recorded, to make new communica- 

 tions to the sections. The chief aim should be, 

 therefore, not a miscellany of papers of interest to 

 :i few specialists, but clear expositions of broad 



idvances which appeal to the many. Beyond this 

 duty of the Association to the general body of 

 scientific workers is the even more important 

 relation of the Association to national life and 

 public interest. When the Association first met, 

 and for many years afterwards, it was the only 

 national peripatetic organisation of a scientific or 

 technical kind. Now, however, the Institution of 

 Naval Architects, Iron and Steel Institute, Royal 

 Sanitary Institute, Society of Chemical Industry, 

 Museums Association, Institute of Metals, and 



■ iher bodies concerned with pure or applied 



I ience, hold their annual meetings at different 

 places each' year, and the Association no longer 

 occupies a unique position in this respect. Not- 

 withstanding this fact, the Association remains 

 the only body which can represent the contribu- 

 tions of research to the whole field of progressive 

 natural knowledge — whether applied or not — and 

 we believe that a much larger public, in any place 



1 meeting, would take active part in its work if 



(Iter consideration were given to wide national 



]i stions and the bearing of local conditions upon 



them. 



The Association has come to be regarded as a 



• i:hnical or professional organisation, like the 

 iiritish Medical Association and similar bodies, 

 with the result that the intelligent public in the 

 locality where it meets takes little interest in it — 



' any rate, not so much as it did at one time. 



\t the recent meeting in Cardiff, the ^otal attend- 



iice was 1378; in 1891 it was 1497; and at almost 

 • very meeting in recent years the numbers have 

 '"•en less than at the previous meeting in the same 



'iacc. Scientific workers nre much more numerous 

 tlian they were in the earlier years of the .Associa- 

 NO. 2655, VOL. 106] 



I tion, and the fact that the attendance at meetings 

 does not show a corresponding increase, but a 

 decrease, is a sign that should not be disregarded 

 by an organisation that desires to expand. 



L'niike the other societies and institutions 

 mentioned above, the British Association looks for 

 members and support to the public in the locality 

 in which its annual meeting is held. It cannot 

 expect, however, to meet with the response desired 

 unless it does much more to create and foster 

 interest in local and national subjects with which 

 science may be concerned, and by securing for the 

 meetings the presence of prominent public men. 

 Distinguished statesmen, great captains of in- 

 dustry, and leading representatives of labour 

 should be approached, and we believe that many 

 of them would be glad to range themselves on the 

 side of scientific workers and testify to the 

 national significance of contributions to national 

 knowledge. There is no lack of subjects with 

 which such men may be appropriately associated. 

 What is lacking is the eloquent advocacy which 

 well-known public men can give. 



We arc not alone in suggesting that a change 

 of policy and of programme is needed to bring the 

 .Association into line with present conditions. Two 

 of the technical journals — the Electrician and the 

 Chemical Age — have each recently expressed 

 regret that at the Cardiff meeting evidence of pro- 

 gress in electrical science, engineering, and 

 chemistry was not prominently displayed by the 

 papers presented to the sections devoted to these 

 subjects ; and they consider that the Association 

 is now out of touch with the times. The former 

 journal suggests that to make the annual meeting 

 of greater interest to the public generally there 

 should be a series of communications on the latest 

 discoveries in physical science, the problems of 

 electric traction, advances in wireless communica- 

 tion, domestic uses of electricity, and related 

 matters in contact with daily life ; and it remarks, 

 " We do feel that at a time when electrical science 

 is being more and more applied to the solution of 

 industrial and domestic problems it is a pity that 

 an opportunity such as the annual meeting of the 

 British Association affords of placing what is being 

 done in simple and, so far as possible, in non- 

 technical language before the genera! public 

 should have been so conspicuou.sly missed." 



Kven technical men, therefore, do not look 

 to the Association for specialised work, but for 

 broad surveys of large regions and descriptions of 

 outstanding peaks in scientific fields. Above all, 

 they ask for attention to subjects of vital interest 



