NA TURE 



221 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1914. 



I SCIENCE AND THE STATE. 



I A T the present moment we as a nation are 

 •X~\. eng-ag-ed in war; hundreds of thousands of 

 volunteers are joining- Lord Kitchener's Army; 

 and it is evident that we are in for a long- job. 

 A forecast by the military correspondent of the 

 Times of October 17 contains the following para- 

 graph:— "This war, for us, has hardly begun. 

 We have sent the point of our advanced guard 

 into France to skirmish with the enemy. In the 

 spring- the rest of the advanced guard will follow, 

 and somewhere towards the close of 191 5 the main 

 body will begin to come within view. We are not 

 in any hurry.'' 



^^'ith this prospect it may be fitting to inquire 

 whether the best use is at present being made of 

 the material at our disposal. We have multitudes 

 of able-bodied young men willing to serve; there 

 is no likelihood that the supply will fail; but at 

 the worst, we can introduce compulsory militarv 

 service. We can safely leave this question in the 

 . hands of our military advisers. There is also a 

 great body of women in trainings as nurses, and a 

 still larg^er body engaged in providing^ necessary- 

 warm clothing for the troops, and for the 

 wounded. The unfortunate refugees in our 

 country are being looked after, and in such ways 

 the nation is risings to the demands thrust upon it. 

 Everyone, in fact, is doing his or her best in 

 individual and in org^anised effort. 



But there is a class of our fellow-subjects which 

 has as yet, so far as we are aware, not been 

 organised. That is the Fellows of the Royal, 

 the Physical, the Chemical, and the Engineering 

 Societies. In their own particular provinces they 

 are the pick of the brains of the country. This 

 war, in contradistinction to all previous wars, is. a 

 war in which pure and applied science plays a con- 

 spicuous part. Has any effort been made to co- 

 ordinate the efforts of the devotees of physical, 

 chemical, and engineerings science, so that they 

 may work together at what for us is the supreme 

 problem of all — how to conquer the Germans? 

 For if we fail, civilisation as we know it will 

 disappear. Democratic rule will have to yield to 

 a militar\- oligarchy. It was pointed out in an 

 article in Nature of October 8 how the originality 

 in science of the Germans has decreased during 

 the past g^eneration, in spite of their enormous 

 output of literature; this is to be attributed, no 

 doubt, to the restraining- influence of a militar}- 



-potism, which has pervaded all aspects of their 

 NO. 2348, VOL. 94] 



life. But in the design and manufacture of their 

 war-material they have worked incessantly for 

 years in their usual methodical manner, trusting 

 rather to myriads of experiments than to the 

 utilisation of original thought, which is for them 

 in a great measure lacking. 



The problems which at the -present moment 

 require the help of our scientific men are varied 

 and numerous. Our first efforts must be to aid 

 our military' forces in suggesting and supplying 

 them with all kinds of appliances and material 

 of which they can make use in vanquishing the 

 enemy and in defending our shores. We know, 

 of course, that expert advisers have been attached 

 to our ordnance factories, to our navy, and to our 

 air-service for years, who have doubtless done 

 much in preparation for the fierce struggle now in 

 progress. But in war, every man who has special 

 knowledge of physical, chemical, and engineering 

 problems which confront the authorities respons- 

 ible for the conduct of the war should be sum- 

 moned to do his best. 



It is not to be expected that under the enor- 

 mous pressure at which they are working, the 

 authorities of the War Office will have time or 

 strength to effect an organisation such as is here 

 suggested ; to create such an organisation must 

 be the duty of the councils of the chief scientific 

 societies and of the British Science Guild ; they 

 must oflfer voluntary aid. A practical method 

 of carrying out this recommendation would be 

 for each council to consider in what way help 

 can be given. It is for the Royal Society 

 to set the example ; among its fellows are to 

 be found the elite of scientific men, belonging 

 to all the scientific societies. .A. number of com- 

 mittees should be appointed, small at first, but 

 with jjower to add to their number; each com- 

 mittee would draft out lines on which its mem- 

 bers might advantageously work, and the com- 

 mittees might be strengihened by adding fellows 

 or members of other societies, known for their 

 special acquaintance with the conditions of each 

 particular problem. Such services would, of 

 course, be voluntary, and should be considered 

 as one contribution of men of science to the relief 

 of national needs. 



It may be contended, however, that bodies of 

 men such as those suggested have not the prac- 

 tical experience necessary' for putting those of 

 their ideas which promise useful outcome into a 

 shape required for present emergencies. This 

 contention, if it should be made, has little weight. 

 There is much contact between those who have 

 devoted their lives to the advancement of the 



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