September 23, 1920] 



NATURE 



III 



gestion made that the British Association has outlived 

 its period of usefulness, but most of us, 1 think, are 

 of opinion that the virility of this nonagenarian institu- 

 tion is such that it should etlect even more during 

 its next ninety years than in its past to promote the 

 objects laid down in clause i of chap. i. of its rules. 

 One feels, however, that some infusion of modernity 

 is necessary if the best possible future is to be built 

 up upon the fine traditions of our Association. With 

 your permission I will remark on certain impediments 

 to progress resulting from the preset^t form of 

 organisation, and suggest, with some diffidence, a 

 possible means for their removal. 



The .Association is really run by the general secre- 

 taries and the treasurer, with the technical members 

 of the council as auxiliaries ; these gentlemen are 

 always chosen from the most eminent scientific talent 

 of the country, and they constitute a body even more 

 exclusive than the council of the Royal Society. None 

 will doubt the thoroughly representative composition 

 of the council, or that its members are doing less than 

 their very best to promote the objects of the Asso- 

 ciation. 



No executive body' intervenes between the council 

 and the sectional committees, and the latter meet only 

 to settle the details of sectional procedure at the 

 annual meeting ; the general committee is merely a 

 confirming body. In this detail of organisation seems 

 to reside a notable defect. We should probably pro- 

 gress more rapidly if an intermediate set of men, 

 chosen from among the more promising and active of 

 the junior scientific men, were appointed to enunciate 

 questions of policy, of initiative, and of action, and 

 to put a definite scheme for each annual meeting 

 before the council. The president-elect might act as 

 chairman of this advisory body. 



The council, meeting several times a year, cannot 

 itself produce such a scheme. Its members are men 

 who have filled most public offices in their respective 

 professions and are distracted by a thousand calls 

 upon their thought and time ; they can, however, 

 bring experience to bear towards amending and per- 

 fecting a well-thought-out plan of campaign laid before 

 them. 



The presentation of papers to sections as to an 

 ordinary scientific society should, I venture to think, 

 be definitely discouraged. The morning session of 

 each section would be better occupied by a discussion 

 upon some topic of immediate interest to the subject 

 concerned ; most large topics concern several sections 

 of the .Association, and these should amalgamate for 

 a mutual exchange of views. If this mode of working 

 were adopted as a general, rather than as an excep- 

 tional, practice, we should be spared audiences 

 numbering about a dozen suffering under the vagaries 

 of a lantern dimly burning. 



The real feature of the meeting might well be made 

 the delivery of semi-popular addresses by competent 

 fjeople on subjects of general interest. I have seen 

 British .Association evening lecturers, great authorities 

 on their own subjects, but incapable of making them- 

 selves heard to a company outnumbering twentv, 

 grappling with an audience of several thousands; the 

 comment* of these non-auditors have informed me of 

 the extent to which such an exhibition promotes the 

 objects of_ the British .Association, and I can imagine 

 the torments of the lecturer. One episode of this kiml 

 — it did not occur this year— docs so much harm to 

 srienre .ts to counterb.ilancc the good r«sults accruing 

 from .1 dozen British .Association meetings, and its 

 recurrence should be made impossible. No profes- 

 sional class is, on the average, so competent to ex- 

 pound a good case as is that of the scirntifir man ; 



NO. 26«)6, VOL. io6] 



anyone who has been in the habit of attending the 

 Friday evening discourses at the Royal Institution 

 w'ill realise that this is a true statement. No class 

 but ours, however, would commit tlie folly of invit- 

 ing an incompetent exponent, of no matter what 

 eminence, to address a general audience in the name 

 of the community at large. 



Dr. R. V. Stanford's view, that we ought to go to 

 the British Association with a programme of fifty 

 addresses to the non-scientific public, is, I believe, 

 entirely sound. Such a programme could have been 

 carried out at Cardiff ; there were many present who 

 combine high scientific achievement "with marked 

 expository power, but, apart from delivering them- 

 selves of a few impromptu remarks before sparse sec- 

 tional attendances, these gentlemen perforce confined 

 themselves to the object of their journey to Cardiff, 

 and, like all the rest of us, thoroughly enjoyed their 

 annual chat about scientific affairs with the many 

 friends whom they had not seen since the meeting at 

 Bournemouth last year. 



If it be possible to construct such an apfressive plan 

 of campaign as is foreshadowed by Dr. Stanuird, 

 some concrete object of attack must be selected. The 

 following is merely a suggestion. 



We are meeting next year in the intellectual centre 

 of Scotland, in the capital town of a vast number of 

 public-spirited and wealthy people. The University 

 of Edinburgh is making a great effort to extend it's 

 science schools so as to bring them into line with 

 present-day requirements. The objects of the .Asso- 

 ciation would be well served by an intensive educa- 

 tional propaganda for the purpose of bringing; home 

 to wealthy Scotsmen what humanity, science, and the 

 British Empire have to gain by the extension of 

 liberal financial support to the Universitv of Edin- 

 burgh. William J. Pope. 



The Chemical Laboratory, University of 

 Cambridge, September 20. 



I CERTAINLY agree in the main with the views 

 expressed in the leading article in Nature of Septem- 

 ber 16 on " The British Association and National 

 Life." No one seems to be satisfied with the Asso- 

 ciation as it is, and the advance of the times has left 

 it decadent just when it ought to be entering into its 

 heritage. Any detaikxl criticism of the last meeting 

 could scarcely fail to be invidious, but it could liave 

 given to few the impression that scientific men them, 

 selves are aware of the position science now holds in 

 the community or realise that the vast bfxly of the 

 general public, disillusioned by the war, looks tothem 

 to provide a way of escape from the evils that threaten 

 our civilisation. The .Association provides an annual 

 opportunity to honour by rotation and seniority a few 

 scientific men by making them officials and inviting 

 them to preside over its deliberations ; to advance the 

 numerous schemes competing for public money or»e 

 or two at a time ; to study human nature, another 

 city and the surrounding scenery ; but it makes 

 no attempt to come to grips with the real enemy or 

 to take the position already conceded by the general 

 public to the spirit and service of .science as almost 

 the only disinterested and effective agency in a canni- 

 balistic and corrupt society. 



Surely ever so much more now than in i8.i«. when 

 the .Association started and when the broader im- 

 plications of scientific discovery and thought upon 

 human life were not dreamt of, is there need for nn 

 •Association to insist upon a greater degree of national 

 attention to the objects of science, and, it may be 

 added, to Its long over.ripc fruits neglected in order 



