September i6, 1915] 



NATURE 



65 



One can sympathise with those readers who grumble 

 it the one halfpenny-worth of geological bread to this 

 itolerable deal of physical and biological sack. 



Now, it is important to remember that this society 



^K^ no serious worker can afford to overlook) we get an 

 ^H example of the way in which the student is taxed in 

 ^Hhis search for the "previous literature." Of ninety- 

 ^H one papers published in the Manchester Memoirs during 

 ^Hthe past five years as many as thirty-four belong to a 

 ^H class that would be referred to Section A of this asso- 

 ^^■ciation, this abundant enthusiasm being largely due 

 ^^■:to a local occurrence of radio-activity. Of the re- 

 ^^mainder ten would come under Section B, seven, 

 ^B«ntirely palaeontological in character, come under Sec- 

 ^" tion C, twenty-two under D, two under H, jtwo under 

 I, diirteen under K, and one under M, 



^Vis mamtamed by fewer than 150 members, many o'f 

 ^M" whom are members only through general interest in 

 science or merely in consequence of a commendable 

 desire to keep alive an institution which has an 

 ^^honourable record. The critical discussion of most 

 ^^■toapers presented must therefore be confined to a very 

 ^^■mall number, and herein arises a danger that may 

 ^^^t any time give rise to consequences far more serious 

 than the burial of a paper with an overburden of 

 unrelated literature ; for the author of the paper him- 

 self must often be the only member capable of decid- 

 ing as to whether his paper is or is not suitable for 

 record as a definite addition to scientific data or 

 thought. 



To the outside student, therefore, the publication of 

 a paper by such a small society gives no prima facie 

 reason for regarding it as a" serious and probably 

 trustworthy addition to scientific literature. The 

 papers so issued must be most embarrassingly unequal 

 and wholly indeterminate in character; vet no stranger 

 can run the risk of disregarding such Dublications. 



But the tax thus laid on students of scientific 

 literature is not the only drawback or danger due to 

 the activities of such small local non-specialised 

 societies. They often possess collections of natural 

 history specimens or of physical instruments for which 

 they become, by mere possession, trustees to the whole 

 scientific world. As in the case of published literature, 

 the circumstance that these things are often unknown 

 to the rest of the world or are almost inaccessible to 

 the student is only one and not the most serious 

 danger; for one knows instances of collections suffer- 

 ing from neglect, or, still worse, suffering from the 

 activities of some member who temporarilv dominates 

 the governing body, and entertains strong' views as to 

 the cost of maintaining collections that, from his 

 special point of view, are of no value. 



Before proposing, in the name of organisation, to 

 abolish ^ such unspecialised societies, or before even 

 suggesting that they might be allowed to die a natural 

 •nth, one should exert one's ingenuity to devise some 

 - heme for turning them to account. Thev inherit 

 raditions in most cases that onlv an unregenerate 

 onoclast would despise; most of them were founded 

 Ahen science was barelv specialised, and when facili- 

 ties for attending London meetings were imperfect; 

 manv of them have published memoirs that are now 

 of classical value, and have included among their 

 active members the most worthy names in the historv 

 of science; most of them possess libraries that coul^ 

 not now be purchased for money, although these are 

 often neglected, and, for financial reasons, often diffi- 

 tult to use. 



Even as monuments, therefore, societies such as 

 those that I have mentioned deser\'e preservation. 

 How, then, can one turn their resources to good 

 account and organise their culture without the draw- 

 backs of Kulttir? 



NO. 2394, VOL. 96] 



The plan that has often occurred to me as a possible 

 cornpromise between the claims of central organisation 

 and provincial autonomy is this. The recognised chief 

 among such societies— the Royal Society of London- 

 should, by affiliation of its provincial poor relations, 

 take over the cost as well as the responsibility of their 

 serious publications. They would enjoy home rule so 

 far as their meetings, discussions, finances, and libra- 

 ries are concerned; but the papers offered for publica- 

 tion would be censored in the usual wav by the appro- 

 priate sectional committees of the Roya'l Society, and 

 if passed, would be published, either in the Proceed! 

 mgs and Transactions of the Royal or of some metro- 

 politan specialised society. Such papers would then 

 rank technically, not by mere courtesy, as "publica- 

 tions" for purposes of quotation or priority. The 

 local interest in science would not then be curtailed, 

 and the geographical handicap, especially felt by junior 

 provincial workers, would be removed, while the pro- 

 vincial scientific communities would be able to main- 

 tain their treasured monuments, without, as now, a 

 constant fear of financial difficulties, and without a 

 recurring dread that senility in the respected old "lit. 

 and phil." will soon end in the way of all things living. 

 So far as our local example is concerned, many, 

 if not most, of the papers which I have just classified 

 by the B.A. system might well have been accepted by 

 the Royal Society, for the majority of the papers 

 published in its Proceedings are also by non-members. 

 The last six volumes of the Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society contain papers by 384 authors, of whom only 

 141 are fellows of the society. 



I am quite aware of many difficulties in the way of 

 this proposal— fears on the one side that the council 

 of the Royal Society will acquire a dangerous power 

 of controlling the freedom of the scientific writer, and 

 forebodings on the other that the duties of the council 

 threaten to become "heavy burdens and grievous to 

 be borne," while the cost of such additional publica- 

 tions will be removed from the local body only to be 

 thrust upon the Royal Society. 



The circumstance that a young worker's paper has 

 been hall-marked by the Royal Society will soon be 

 regarded as fair compensation for what would, after 

 all, be but partial loss of freedom; for the local 

 societies, as well as the various journals, can still 

 publish what they like, though the foreign student 

 may not be blamed for neglecting any but technically 

 published scientific literature. 



The extra burdens added to the council and sec- 

 tional committees of the Royal Society are merely of a 

 kind that someone must undertake if we are to have 

 any regard at all for the progress of science, and it 

 will soon be necessary for the State to recognise the 

 national value of the work done by the council and 

 committees of the Royal Society in more ways than 

 nominal recognition of their ornamental positions. 

 In practically every country on the continent of 

 Europe the premier learned academies that occupy 

 positions corresponding to the Roval Society of Lon- 

 don are financially supported by the State, and even 

 the ordinary members are paid. 



In this country scientific organisations, like the 

 universities, are largely dependent on private charity, 

 with the result that, while we get the benefits of 

 individuality and local competition, we suffer, as the 

 war has already proved to us, the necessary loss of 

 power due to an undesirable number of wheels in our 

 machine, due to unnecessary duplication of effort, and 

 due to industrial and financial eddies in the stream 

 of progress; in a word, due to want of method and 

 organisation. That is the theme which I wish the 

 delegates present to take back for practical considera- 

 tion by the societies that we represent. 



