NATURE 



335 



THURSDAY, NGVEMBKR 



191, 



SCIENCE AND THE PUBLIC. 



IX his " Ode on the Coronation of King- Edward 

 the Seventh," William \\'atson wrote of Eng-- 

 land these notable lines : — 



For now the day is unto them that know. 

 And not henceforth she stumbles on the prize ; 

 And yonder march the nations full of eyes. 

 Already is doom a-spinning. ... 



To some of us who were painfully aware of the 

 apathy of British statesmen and of the British 

 public towards the claims of science for truer re- 

 cognition, these words, when they were uttered 

 thirteen years ago, came as the words of a seer. 

 The fallacy of misplaced optimism, that England 

 •would somehow "muddle through," was then 

 'rampant ; England had always stumbled on the 

 prize of success ; chance might be trusted that she 

 would stumble on it again. Ignore the men who 

 know ; distrust the expert ; let us go on with our 

 muddling; let us play golf and shoot our 

 pheasants, and let other nations scheme, and 

 sweat, and cultivate science ! It seemed at one 

 time as thougfh some attempt was being made to 

 remedy this national apathy. The creation by 

 Parliament, half a century back, of a Science and 

 Art Department, suggested at least an ameliora- 

 tion of the old bad state of things ; and efforts 

 were made^ — hopeful efforts, and not unsuccessful 

 in a way — to foster the teaching of science in the 

 older universities and build up newer institutions 

 on a basis of its full recognition. These efforts, 

 though they have by no means failed, have not, 

 however, brought about public recognition to a 

 degree commensurate with the national need, or 

 comparable with the recognition accorded to 

 science in Continental nations, including^ the 

 central European empires with which we are now 

 in armed conflict. 



It is unfortunately only too well known to scien- 

 tific men that for more than a generation past the 

 trend of public opinion, at least as represented by 

 politicians, statesmen, departmental officials, muni- 

 cipal authorities, and including even the heads of 

 many great industrial and commercial undertak- 

 ings, has been to ignore the position of science in 

 the fabric of civihsation, and to treat the develop- 

 ment of science as though it were a matter of little 

 moment to the national welfare. It has required 

 nothing short of the most terrible war of all time to 

 awaken the nation to its slackness in many things. 

 Indeed, the nation has as yet not begun either 

 to realise how dearly it is paying for its neglect of 

 NO. 2404, VOL. 96] 



science, or to reconstruct on a scientific basis its 

 politics, its statesmanship, its commerce, its edu- 

 cation, its civil and industrial administration. Dis- 

 trust of the expert, of the man who has made it 

 his business to know, is still the fashionable, if 

 not the prevalent attitude towards men of science. 

 The public which purchases every morning and 

 evening the halfpenny journals, and swallows the 

 pabulum which they provide, is the same public 

 which elects our Parliamentary representatives 

 and rules most of our national institutions. Occa- 

 sionally the daily papers deign to insert a para- 

 graph of what they think to be scientific news. 

 If the public prefers its sensational tit-bit of 

 science-gossip, culled from the pamphlet of some 

 pseudo-scientific charlatan and served up hot by an 

 anonymous paragraphist, to more sober and in- 

 forming articles written by men whose authority 

 is indisputable, the public has itself to thank. 

 Editors and sub-editors do not know enough 

 science to suppress the twaddle ; and, conse- 

 quently, blunders which would be thought amaz- 

 ing if perpetrated in a like fashion in the domains 

 of literature or art or history, are put into 

 gratuitous and harmful circulation. 



In political circles the same indifference to 

 science prevails. Apart from the handful of uni- 

 versity members, which includes Sir Joseph Larmor 

 and Sir Philip Magnus as the sole repre- 

 sentatives of the most neglected branch of 

 human activities, there is not one scientific 

 man in the roll of the House of Commons. In 

 the House of Lords science is indeed represented 

 by two hereditary peers. Lord Rayleigh and Lord 

 Berkeley ; but there have been no scientific men 

 called to the peerage since the deaths of Lord 

 Kelvin, Lord Lister, and Lord Avebury. The 

 esteem in which science is held may be measured 

 by the suggestion in Lord Dunraven's scheme for 

 the reform of the House of Lords, that in the 

 future it should consist of 400 members, whereof 

 two should represent art, literature, and science ! 

 When this amazing proposition was put forward 

 ncjt one voice cried out in protest against this 

 insult to science ; it was a much more important 

 question whether the bishops shall continue to be 

 peers. In less august circles the same astonishing 

 contempt for the claims of science is apparent. 

 Shortly before the death of King Edward \T1. the 

 Lord Mayor of London gave a luncheon to our 

 present monarch, then Prince of Wales, and to 

 the Elder Brethren of Trinity House. Dis- 

 tinguished members of the Services, as well as 

 Parliamentarians, were of course invited, and 

 there were lawyers, artists, play-actors, and stock- 



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