September i6, 1915] 



NATURE 



63 



Section H — Anthropology. 



■*Sir C. H. Read — Age of stone circles ... 



*Prof. G. Elliot Smith — Physical charac- 

 ters of ancient Egyptians 



*Dr. R. R. Marett— Palaeolithic site in 

 Jersey 



*Prof. J. L. Myres — Archaeological inves- 

 tigations in Malta 



*Prof, J. L. Myres — Distribution of Bronze 

 age implements 



Section I — Physiology. 

 *Sir E. Schafer — Ductless glands 

 *Prof. C. S. Sherrington — Mammalian 

 heart 



Section K — Botany. 

 *Prof. F. O. Bower — Cinchona Station, 



Jamaica 



*Prof. F. W. Oliver— Structure of fossil 



plants 



*Prof. F. F. Blackman— Heredity ... 



Section L — Education. 



*Prof. J. A. Green — Museums 



*Dr. G. A. Auden — School books and eye- 

 sight 



*Dr. C. S. Myers — Mental and physical 



factors 



Mr. C. A. Buckmaster — " Free-place " 

 system 



Corresponding Societies Committee. 



*Mr. W. Whitaker — For preparation of 

 report 



£ s. d. 



25 o 



15 O 



25 O 



10 o c 



5 o c 



25 



Total 



£96S 



CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES OF CORRE- 

 SPONDING SOCIETIES. 



Opening Address by Sir Thomas H. Holland, 



K.C.I. E., D.Sc, F.R.S., President of the 



Conference. 



The Organisation of Science. 



A.MONG the many lessons we learn in every great 

 war, there is always one that stands out pro- 

 minently as something of fundamental and national 

 importance. In the Crimea our shortcomings in 

 commissariat organisation were demonstrated with 

 painful emphasis. In South Africa we leajupt some- 

 thing of the way in which the initiative of the indi- 

 vidual, naturally more prominent in the amateur 

 soldier, triumphs, in unforeseen circumstances, over 

 any system fixed by formal and traditional discipline. 

 The great war now in progress will result more com- 

 pletely than any of its puny predecessors in recasting 

 our national ideas, economic, political, and military. 



Of all the lessons we are likely to learn, the one 

 that so far promises most to affect the life of the 

 nation may be summed up in a word, organisation. 

 The fuss made lately about the shortage of munitions ; 

 the discovery in the ranks of the Army and among 

 its officers of thousands who are only amateur fighters 

 but are professionally trained technologists; the re- 

 casting of the Cabinet; the introduction, twelve 

 months after the commencement of the war, of legis- 

 lation to register and classify the technical qualifica- 

 tions of the people ; the repeated occurrence of coal 

 strikes on a large scale, settled only by the intervention 

 of Cabinet Ministers, and by an obviously temporary 

 compromise, are all confessions of our shortcomings 



NO. 2394, VOL'. 96] 



in national organisation — shortcomings that have 

 already cost the country thousands of lives. 



On the other side of the " front " we see organisa- 

 tion raised to the level of a national cult — Kultur — 

 with the result that, while efficiency in action and 

 economy in the utilisation of a country's resources 

 have been raised to a standard hitherto unknown, and 

 by us undreamt of, the human instincts have been 

 drilled out of existence, and Germany stands alone as 

 an almost perfect machine in action, but, like a 

 machine, unable to understand the rest of the human 

 race ; admired for its mechanical efficiency, but loathed 

 for its degradation of the great human instincts of 

 liberty and toleration. 



But between these extremes there must be a course 

 of maximum wisdom ; for admittedly both the organ- 

 isation of the community (the feature which is sup- 

 posed to dominate the professional classes) and 

 freedom of the individual (the prerogative of the 

 amateur) are necessary for the progress of what is 

 best in civilisation. 



Every meeting of the British Association reminds 

 us that early in the last century a body of learned 

 men realised that the form of study popularly known 

 as scientific needed organising, required the strengthen- 

 ing influence of a protective guild — the formation of 

 a cult — in order that its value might be forced on the. 

 popular mind. Long before the foundation of the- 

 British Association a comparatively small number of 

 men had interested themselves in scientific problems, 

 and their work had so far progressed as to require 

 specialisation, with the foundation of distinct societies. 

 This specialisation found expression at the first three 

 meetings of the association by the formation of com- 

 mittees for (i) Mathematics and General Physics ; (ii) 

 Chemistry and Mineralogy; (iii) Geology and Geo- 

 graphy; (iv) Zoology and Botany; (v) Anatomy and 

 Physiology; and (vi) Statistics. 



These six groups have developed into our present 

 twelve sections and extra subsections, and in practice 

 every section, by classification of its papers and in 

 the conduct of its discussions, acknowledges a further 

 sf>ecialisation that is none the less real because it has 

 not been yet formally recognised in organisation. 



It is difficult for us to realise that, although the 

 collection of scientific data and thought had made 

 such progress eighty-four years ago as to require the 

 subdivision indicated by the first Institution of the 

 British Association, the importance of science was 

 still scarcely recognised among the so-called learned 

 and ruling classes. Obvious if insufficient progress 

 had been made since the days when it was possible 

 for Dean Swift to issue, as tolerable literature, his 

 satires on the Royal Society, or for Robert South 

 to add to his doubtful popularity by describing its 

 members as incapable of admiring anything except 

 "fleas, lice, and themselves." 



Although science now takes its place on equal terms 

 with literature in the world of academic culture, w^e 

 have so far succeeded only to a very small extent in 

 getting the professors of pure science to co-operate 

 in unison with the captains of industry who depend 

 entirely, consciously or otherwise, on the application 

 of scientific laws to industrial problems. 



There has hitherto been a tendency for scientific and 

 literary men to gather together under one banner, 

 with the motto " learned," but a more natural asso- 

 ciation should be indicated by the community of in- 

 terests between scientific meii and technical experts. 

 The student of pure science often discovers laws or 

 formulates theories which are but accidentally carried 

 beyond the purely intellectual world. On the other 

 hand, technical experts frequently work bv empirical 

 methods that are discovered either by accident or as 



