NATURE 



8oi 



SAi URDAY, JUNE 24. 1922. 



Letters to the Editor : — 



On the Continuous Radiation found in some Celestial 

 Spectra beyond the Limit of the Balmer Series of 

 Hydrogen.— W. H. Wright . . 

 Discoveries in Tropical Medicine. — Sir E. Ray 



Lankester, K.C.B., F.R.S 



The Isotopes of Tin.— Dr. F. W. Aston, F.R.S. 

 The Spiracular Muscles of Hymenoptera Aculeata. — 



Annie D, Betts 



Symbiotic Bacteria and Phosphorescence. — F. A. 



Potts 



Stone Preservation.— Dr. A. P. Laurie . . 

 Oscillation Circuits for the Determination of Di- 

 electric Constants at Radio Frequencies. ( With 



diagram.)— P. Pi.. Cooper 



A Century of Astronomy. By Prof. A. S. 



Eddington, F.R.S 



X-Ray Studies on the Crystal Structure of Iron and 



Steel. {Illusl rated.) By H. C. H. C. . 

 Wireless Telephone Receiving Sets .... 

 Obituary :— 



Prof. A. Laveran, For. Mem., R.S. By A. B. . 

 Dr. J. Rene Benoit. By J. E. S. 



John Wanklyn McConnel 821 



F. W. Sanderson 822 



Current Topics and Events 822 



Our Astronomical Column 824 



Research Items 825 



Carnegie Institution of Washington .... 826 



Melanesian Witchcraft 827 



New Buildings of University College, Nottingham . 827 

 Rothamsted Experimental Station . . .828 



University and Educational Intelligence . . . 828 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers 829 



Societies and Academies 830 



Official Publications Received 832 



Diary of Societies 832 



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Editorial communications to the Editor. 



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The Influence of Science. 



THE great advances of science in recent times, and 

 the countless applications of its discoveries, have 

 led many people to regard it as concerned only with 

 purely materialistic things, and to forget its moral and 

 intellectual influence. In their view science is associ- 

 ated with the transformation of beautiful countrysides 

 into the slums of industrial centres, with high-explosive 

 shells and clouds of poison gas to supersede the slings 

 and arrows of earher days. Nothing could be further 

 from the truth, however, than to suppose that these 

 debasing aspects of modern civilisation are necessary 

 consequences of scientific progress. They are due to 

 human greed and the same spirit of jealousy as that 

 which led Cain to rise up and slay his brother. They 

 are consequences of the fact that civilised man is little 

 removed from a savage when his primitive instincts 

 are concerned ; and if he can acquire the strength of a 

 giant from science he is prepared to use the power for 

 his own purposes. 



Science as such has nothing to do with the conquests 

 of nations or peoples, or the upholding of dynasties, 

 or industrial exploration. The end of all scientific 

 investigation is the discovery of truth in the realm of 

 animate and inanimate Nature, including man, his 

 instincts and impulses and his social organisation. 

 As expressed in the motto of the Royal Society, science 

 is not bound by the words of any master, and it there- 

 fore holds itself free to examine critically any principle 

 or doctrine in which natural facts or phenomena are 

 involved. It represents knowledge as opposed to 

 ignorance, light as against darkness, the beauty of 

 truth and the truth of beauty. It seeks justification 

 not through faith but by works, and its allegiance is 

 to truth alone so far as human intelligence can com- 

 prehend it at any epoch. To this spirit is due not 

 only advances by which forces of Nature are used and 

 controlled for the benefit of man, but also intellectual 

 expansion and the elevation of the moral sense through 

 the understanding of the significance of natural law in 

 determining natural events. 



The influence of science upon material progress 

 and human comfort is understood much more com- 

 monly than that of its effect upon the human mind. 

 It is difficult for people of these times to realise the 

 liberation of life and intellect brought about by the 

 works of Copernicus, Galileo, Vesalius, and other 

 pioneers of scientific learning. The very foundations 

 of belief were shaken when the earth was removed 

 from the position in which presumptuous man had 

 placed it, and shown to be a minor member of a group 

 of planets revolving round a sun which was itself only 

 one of innumerable similar orbs in stellar space. For 



NO. 2747, VOL. 109] 



