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NA TURE 



[June 3, 1922 



British Science Guild. 



1\/TUCH success attended the annual dinner of the 

 -'■*-*■ British Science Guild, which was held at the 

 Prince's Restaurant, Piccadilly, on May 23, with the 

 president of the Guild, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, in 

 the chair. After the loyal toasts had been given by 

 him. Sir Arthur Mayo-Robson, in proposing " The 

 British Science Guild," said he was sure that there is 

 a wider and deeper interest among the public in 

 regard to recent scientific work, and this interest 

 would be far greater if only scientific discoverers 

 would put their discoveries into works that were more 

 accessible to the public. In nearly all cases techni- 

 calities could be very much modified in description, 

 and it would be a great advantage if some of the 

 wonderful discoveries could be put in plain language. 

 Thinking people of various parts of the Empire are 

 just as anxious to learn of these matters because they 

 see much of the application of science. The Guild 

 would be doing very valuable work if it could establish 

 centres in those distant places. The toast was 

 supported by Commdr. L. C. Bernacchi, who spoke 

 of the appeal which will shortly be launched with the 

 object of raising funds to enable the Guild to carry 

 out its legitimate and laudable aims, the encourage- 

 ment of research and the application of scientific 

 method to all public affairs. 



Lieut. - General Sir Alfred Keogh, proposing 

 " Science and Industry," said it had been the custom 

 to rail at industries as having no appreciation of 

 science, or modern discovery, and of being slow to 

 adapt themselves to new developments. However 

 true this may have been in the past, there is no truth 

 in it now. The leaders of industry are fully alive to 

 the importance of science, and that is due partly to 

 the wonderful work of the Department of Scientific 

 and Industrial Research and the Research Associa- 

 tions which had been formed in connection with the 

 great trades. 



Sir Edward Boyle, replying, said that we were faced 

 to-day as never before by political, social, industrial, 

 economic, and ethical questions. We can face them 

 with hopes of success only in the spirit in which men 

 of science have fought disease ; that is, if we face 

 them logically, by investigation, by experiment, 

 impartially, thoroughly, accurately ; in a word, if we 

 face them scientifically. Prof. Huxley, who was 

 fighting the battles of the Guild thirty and forty 

 years ago, said that science was nothing more than 

 organised common-sense. 



The president gave the toast of " The Guests," and 

 referred to the way in which science was solving 

 modern problems. In one direction with which he 

 was associated, the making of roads, we had only just 

 begun to apply the teachings of science. The chemist 

 is just as necessary to-day for making roads, for 

 example, in deciding the proper mixture of bitumen 

 and sand to make the surface or carpet of the road, 

 as he is for making dies, explosives, or medicines. 

 The toast was acknowledged by Principal Ernest 

 Barker, Mr. H. G. Wells, and Mr. F. W. Sanderson. 



Mr. H. G. Wells, who was called upon unexpectedly, 

 said that science was to him a thing so great, so all- 

 important, so entirely such salvation as man had 

 before him, that it was with a feeling of irreverence 

 that he found himself talking about it in an un- 

 prepared fashion. By science is meant a process of 

 human intellectual energy which is exhaustively and 

 reverently criticised, leading, it is hoped, to action 

 exhaustively criticised before it is exhaustively 

 planned. In that he expressed the whole of his 

 faith, the whole of his belief in human life. An un- 

 charitable person might entertain the view that the 



Guild had some idea of monopolising science or 

 claiming science for the purposes of the British 

 Empire, but there was something bigger in their 

 minds than that. Science is a great thing which is 

 going to carry human affairs above those levels, and 

 when we think of science and of the Guild, it means 

 that we of the British community hope to contribute 

 our share to the bigger human process, and to play our 

 part to the best of our ability, with no national and 

 imperial aggressiveness, in the huge task of humanity 

 which is involved in the scientific process. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Cambridge. — Dr. Searle, Peterhouse, has been re- 

 appointed University Lecturer in Experimental 

 Physics, Mr. S. Lees, St. John's College, University 

 Lecturer in Thermodynamics, and Mr. F. Lavington, 

 Emmanuel College, Girdlers' University Lecturer in 

 Economics. 



The Botanic Garden Syndicate invite the attention 

 of the University to the very critical financial position 

 of the garden. They have received generous gifts to 

 help in restoring the garden to its pre-war efficiency, 

 but unless the income of the garden can be consider- 

 ably increased drastic steps will have to be taken 

 which must involve a diminution in its educational 

 value. 



It is proposed that a site of seven acres belonging 

 to King's and Clare Colleges and lying between West 

 Road and Burrell's Walk should be purchased for the 

 erection in due course of a new library, the present 

 library not being large enough to meet its growing 

 requirements. 



London. — The Senate has made the following 

 appointments : — Dr. R. W. Chambers to the Quain 

 Chair of English language and literature, tenable at 

 University College, in succession to Dr. W. P. Ker, 

 resigned. 



At the meeting of the Senate on May 24, Dr. R. M. 

 Walmsley took his seat for the first time since his 

 election as Chairman of Convocation in succession to 

 Sir Edward Busk. In this connection a resolution 

 was adopted in the following terms : " That on the 

 occasion of Sir Edward Busk's retirement from the 

 Chairmanship of Convocation the Senate desire to 

 place on record their cordial appreciation of the 

 services which he has rendered to the University 

 during the past thirty years." 



Mr. N. B. Jopson has been appointed to the 

 University Readership in Comparative Slavonic 

 Philology, tenable at King's College, and Mr. R. B. . 

 Forrester, to the Sir Ernest Cassel Lectureship in 

 Commerce, tenable at the London School of Economics. 



A course of four lectures on " Phanomenologische 

 Methode und phanomenologische Philosophie " will 

 be given in German by Prof. Edmund Husserl, 

 professor of philosophy- in the University of Freiburg, 

 at University College, on June 6, 8, 9, and 12 at 

 5.30 P.M. At the Imperial College of Science and 

 Technology (South Kensington, S.W.) Dr. A. F. 

 Holleman, professor of organic chemistry in the 

 University of Amsterdam, will lecture in English 

 on recent investigations on the substitution in the 

 benzene nucleus, on Wednesday, June 7, at 5.15 p.m. 



The following lectures will be given by professors 

 of Dutch Universities at the Royal Society of 

 Medicine (i Wimpole Street, W.i) : On Monday, 

 June 12, " Injurious Agents and Growths," by Dr. 

 M. Jansen (of Leiden) at 5 o'clock. On Wednesday, 

 June 21; " The Pathology of Haemoglobin," by 

 Prof. Dr. A. A. Hijmans van den Bergh (of Utrecht). 



NO. 2744, VOL. 109] 



