January lo, 1901} 



NATURE 



265 



blessed aspects of the study of animate nature that there may 

 be the alternative interpretation. Work at a problem long as 

 you will, you will find that when you flatter yourself you have 

 obtained the clue to its significance it will often happen that it 

 is just that which you have missed. 



Call it ambiguity if you will ; it is primarily due to the 

 structural and functional complexity of living matter, and there 

 lies in it, to my mind, the greatest charm of our science, in that 

 it appeals to the imagination, and therein arouses one of the 

 highest of the intellectual faculties. We work in hope, content 

 to investigate the reason of phenomena, but the nature of things 

 will be ever beyond our grasp. 



As contributing to the advancement of knowledge, and to a 

 fuller understanding of the phenomena which underlie the 

 operations of nature, the topics to which I have drawn attention 

 are among the most important in the recent progress of science 

 — the most revolutionary results of patient, persistent inquiry. 

 In their definitive form, the so-called ' ' laws of nature " are but 

 generalised statements of fact, and, so far as we are individually 

 concerned, I would remind you that, since we are but members 

 of the great animal subkingdom, dependent, with the probable 

 millions of species which compose it, upon a common set of 

 conditions in our relations to the universe at large, it is impossible, 

 if we would know and appreciate our position in the world, to 

 present a deaf ear to their teaching. It behoves us not only to 

 ponder them on our own account, but to see to it that, as time 

 progresses, those committed to our charge are so brought up as 

 to be not wholly ignorant of them. 



And this brings me to the concluding portion of my address. 



As members of local committees and scientific societies, we 

 are pledged to the task of what is known as popular education, 

 and its correlate the "popularisation of science." Exactly 

 what this hackneyed expression may be taken to imply I have 

 never yet discovered, and, speaking for myself, I regard it as 

 erroneous. Science cannot be popularised, and any work to- 

 day worthy the name of scientific must be technical. To 

 popularise science is an impossibility, but to popularise the 

 results of it is quite another thing. 



Our task is educational, and we have to encourage a love of 

 those subjects which form the basis of the doctrine of " organic 

 evolution," from which has arisen the greatest revolution in 

 thought and the conduct of life the world has ever seen. How 

 heavy the responsibility we thus incur ! How poor the 

 encouragement we, for the most part, receive at the hands of 

 our fellow citizens ! To the credit of our nation, be it said, the 

 State is now alive to its responsibility in the matter, and to that 

 of our County Councils, that they are doing their duty towards 

 the higher education and science in particular. But I have grave 

 doubts if the best is being done by private enterprise,twhich in 

 all matters of progress is a characteristically British method of 

 procedure in the higher walks of life. How many of us, competent 

 to aid in the local management and organisation of museums 

 and scientific institutes, are doing all that we might t6 keep 

 those in charge of them on the right path. One still finds 

 exhibited the omnium gatherum of scraps, the product of nature 

 overshadowed by the artifice of man. In place of the represen- 

 tative collection of objects of local interest, of specimens and 

 maps which should furnish a key to the physical constitution of 

 the neighbourhood, and which a visitor has a right to expect on 

 entering a strange land, one too often finds the rumble-jumble of 

 odds and ends, with here and there a hidden treasure. There is 

 a so-called " museum " not many miles from this place, in which 

 payment is extracted from the visitor to behold, as a conspicuous 

 exhibit amidst a collection of oddments, a milk tin recovered 

 from the Fram, which Nansen would himself probably 

 disown ! Local control and organisation should render this 

 sort of thing impossible, despite its being due to " private enter- 

 prise," and you must please pardon me when I draw attention 

 to the fact that we in the south are behind our northern 

 brethren in respect to local organisation for science and the 

 higher education. I can conceive no better outcome of this 

 meeting than that we should at once resolve, by connected action, 

 to put this right. 



On appeal to a frivolous public, we are told there is nothing 

 to come of it, that work of the kind to which we aspire is 

 not remunerative, and that the cultivation of scientific tastes 

 is to be avoided, as narrowing in effect and tending to dwarf 

 the religious instinct, and foster doubt. To this I would 

 reply (i) that nKist of our boasted advantages in civilisation 

 have been due to the outcome and the application of science 



NO. 1628, VOL. 63] 



to daily life and domestic use ; (2) that there is no better 

 tonic for the human mind than that afforded by perusal of 

 the works of nature ; (3) that the existence of matter, 

 " motion, and law-abiding operation in nature, are greater 

 miracles than were ever recounted by the mythologies " ; and 

 (4) that science, with love, now rules the world. 



To counteract the tendency of our time, it is for us to see 

 to it that the selection and arrangement of the exhibits in 

 our museum collections shall furnish the visitor with a series 

 of local object lessons, both attractive and instructive, and so 

 ordained as to create in the mind of the mere passer-by — as 

 can readily be done by the excellent system of descriptive 

 labelling now coming into vogue — a desire to know more of 

 his immediate surroundings, and, through them, of his position 

 and relationships as a dweller in the neighbourhood and a factor 

 in the universe at large. 



The aim and object of not a few of our local scientific 

 societies would seem to be publication rather than this, and 

 against the tendency I would urge every influence I can 

 command. If confined to mere local records of fact, Proceedings 

 or other publications, maintained in moderation, are well and 

 good, but, with larger and central institutions given to the 

 meeting of persons from various localities for comparison of 

 local forms and discussion of broad principles, the local 

 society, in striving after this, is exceeding the bounds of reason- 

 able distribution of labour. 



Once again let me remark that we can have no higher 

 object in view than the capture of youth. Huxley has wisely 

 said: — 



' ' The great end of life is not knowledge, but action. A 

 small percentage of the population is born with special apti- 

 tude of some sort or another ; and the most important object 

 of all educational schemes is to catch these exceptional 

 people, and turn them to account for the good of society . . . 

 and to put them into the position in which they can do the work 

 for which they are specially fitted." 



And he added : — 



" That if the nation could purchase a potential Watt, a Davy, 

 or Faraday, at the cost of 100,000/. down, he would be cheap 

 at the money." 



To me nothing would be more gratifying than that there 

 might result from this meeting an agreement upon a line of 

 action which might track a genius and place him on the 

 ladder he was born to ascend, to the permanent glory of his race 

 and benefit of the world at large. 



In these days, when bombast and self-assertiveness are apt 

 to be mistaken for executive power, we want all the origin- 

 ality we can secure. Learning is but our knowledge of the 

 experience of others, knowledge our very own ! Higher ambi- 

 tion than that of adding to the sum of knowledge no man can 

 have ; wealth, influence, position, all fade before it, but we 

 must die for it if our work is to live after us. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



A COURSE of lectures and demonstrations in practical 

 hygiene for teachers will be held partly at Bedford College and 

 partly at the Sanitary Institute, on Saturday mornings during 

 the three terms of the present year. 



We learn from Science that Mr. John D. Rockefeller has 

 made a further gift of 1,500,000 dollars to the University of 

 Chicago. Of this sum, 1,000,000 dollars is to be used as an 

 endowment fund. The balance of the gift is to be used for 

 general needs. Mr. Rockefeller suggests that 100,000 dollars 

 be used for the construction of a university press building. Mr. 

 Leon Mandel has given 25,000 dollars to the University, in 

 addition to his previous gifts. 



One of the most important developments recorded in the 

 recent report of the Somerset County Education Committee is 

 the presentation, by Lord Portman, of an experimental farm, 

 five miles from Taunton. The farm consists of 142 acres, of 

 which 80 are pasture. Lord Portman has made considerable 

 alterations and additions to the farm buildings in order to bring 

 them up to date and to adapt theni to the requirements of the 

 County Committee. The primary object of the farm will be 

 experiments on the profitable feeding of farm animals of various 



