76 



NATURE 



[December 6, 191 7 



and senior students with them. The importance of 

 having an ample supply of trained scientific workers, 

 and the necessity for this country to increase its supply 

 in the future, could scarcely be proved more incisively 

 than by our experience in this connection. 



The need for a greater appreciation of the value 

 of science has been brought into such prominence by 

 the war that most of those who have advocated the 

 claims of science in education have not unnaturally 

 laid the greatest stress on the importance of science to 

 the welfare, the power, and even the safety of the 

 nation. . The supporters of literary studies have, on 

 the other hand, dwelt mainly on the fact that literature 

 broadens a man's horizon, and gives him new interests 

 and pleasures, that it teaches him how to live, if not 

 how to make a living. The result of this divergence 

 of appeal has made the discussion appear, to those 

 who watch it from outside, almost like a discussion 

 between spirituality and materialism, or between a 

 saint and a man of business. 



Echoes of this sentiment are to be found in the 

 opinions expressed by some members of the Labour 

 Party; there is a tendency to regard science teaching 

 with suspicion, as being intended to make the working 

 man more valuable to his employer rather than _ to 

 increase the brightness and interest of his_ own life. 



I recognise — and I know no man of science who 

 does not— the necessity of literary studies as a part 

 of the education of every boy and girl, but I must 

 protest against the idea that literature has a monopoly 

 in the mental development of the individual. The 

 study of science widens the horizon of his intellectual 

 activities, and helps him to appreciate the beauty and 

 mystery which surround him. It opens up avenues of 

 constant appeal to his intellect, to his imagination, 

 to his spirit of inquiry, to his love for truth. So far 

 from being entirely utilitarian, it often lends romance 

 and interest to things which to those ignorant of 

 science make no appeal to the intellect or irnagination, 

 but are regarded by them from an exclusively utili- 

 tarian point of view. A knowledge of science brightens 

 and widens the intellectual life, and is a constant 

 stimulus to the intellect and imagination. 



The question of the position of science in schools is 

 of vital importance ; I think that we ought also to pay 

 attention to the need for sustaining and stimulating in 

 after-life the interest in science which we hope will 

 have been aroused at school. We should encourage 

 and develop efforts to bring to the notice of the public 

 those results of science which are of general interest. 

 I am not sure that we do all that is possible in this 

 direction, and yet it seems our duty to the community 

 to give it everything which can add interest to life 

 and stimulate the intelligence; to do everything in 

 our power to increase appreciation and interest in 

 science among our citizens ; without such appreciation, 

 a full utilisation of the resources of science and 

 adequate encouragement for its development are impos- 

 sible in a democratic country. 



There are many results of genferal interest embodied 

 in papers which could not be read by anyone who was 

 not a specialist in the subject. I will give one in- 

 stance, taken from what might seem a somewhat un- 

 promising branch of science — arithmetic. If we take 

 the numbers in order i, 2, 3, . . . we see that there 

 are some, such as 3, 5, 7, 11, which cannot be divided 

 by any number smaller than themselves ; these_ are 

 called prime numbers ; the number of such primes 

 which are less than a given number is a matter of very 

 considerable importance, and Gauss, many years ago, 

 gave, without any rigorous proof, a rule about it. The 

 rule was tested by actual trial for numbers up to a 

 thousand millions, and, as it was found to he true 

 over that immense range, it was accepted as universally 



NO. 2510, VOL. 100] 



correct in spite of the absence of a satisfactory proof. 

 Quite recently, however, Mr. Littlewood, one of our 

 fellows, has shown that, in spite of this apparently 

 overwhelfning evidence in its favour, the result is not 

 general, but the numbers, for which it breaks down, 

 are so enormous that it would be quite beyond the 

 powers of human endurance to detect its failure by 

 actual trial. I may say, in passing, that, enormous 

 as these numbers are, they are mere nothings com- 

 pared with what we have to deal with in many branches 

 of physics. Here, then, we have a result which has 

 satisfied, and apparently always will satisfy, any 

 direct test that can be applied to it, and yet is not 

 generally true; there seems to me to be something of 

 a tragedy, perhaps the suspicion of a sermon, in this 

 investigation, which is in a paper of a highly technical 

 character, quite unintelligible to anyone who was not 

 an expert mathematician. 



There are many results of this kind, known only to 

 specialists, but which would interest a very much wider 

 circle of readers if they could be brought to their 

 notice. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be at 

 present any recognised method of doing this. There 

 are excellent periodicals with special circles of readers 

 which might find a place for some of them, but these 

 only reach a minute fraction of the educated public. 

 There is room, I think, for a periodical which would 

 appeal to a much wider circle, which should contain 

 : interesting and trustworthy accounts of results of in- 

 terest, not only in science, but also in the other subjects 

 1 included in a general education. 



I The desirability of a journal of this kind was re- 

 cently brought before the notice of the Executive Com- 

 i mittee of the Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies. 

 If it could be established, it would, I believe, do good 

 work by stimulating the intellectual life of the nation 

 I and increasing the appreciation of science throughout 

 \ the country. 



The Medallists. 

 Copley Medal. — M. Emile Roux, Pasteur's chief 

 ; collaborator, succeeded him as the director of the In- 

 j stitut Pasteur, which he has successfully developed and 

 I maintained as the foremost school of bacteriology, 

 ! both for teaching and for research. From the early 

 'eighties, when he was associated with PasteUr and 

 Chamberland in the study of anthrax and the production 

 j of vaccines against this disease, he has played a lead- 

 j ing part in the development of our knowledge of the 

 I processes of immunity. His work with the distin- 

 I guished veterinarian Nocard upon -the contagious 

 1 pleuro-pneumonia of cattle was the first demonstration 

 j of the existence of "ultra-microscopic," or, as they are 

 j now termed, filterable viruses as disease-producing 

 agencies ; his work with Yersin, the first full study of 

 ! the bacillus of diphtheria and of its toxins. He 

 ! shares with the late Prof. Behring, of Marburg, in 

 j the introduction of diphtheria antitoxin as a practical 

 I means of prophylaxis and cure, and with him as co- 

 j founder of serum therapeutics was awarded the Nobel 

 ! prize. All the leading French bacteriologists of our 

 I generation have been his pupils. 



! Royal Medals. — Dr. Aitken is distinguished for his 

 lifelong researches on the nuclei of cloudy condensa- 

 J tion, embodied in a series of memoirs communicated 

 to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The latest of 

 these appeared in the present year. Dr. Aitken 's dis- 

 coveries opened up a new field of investigation in 

 physics, and constitute a chapter of knowledge of great 

 importance intrinsically and in their relation to the 

 physics of meteorology. Dr. Aitken, who has pursued 

 his work as an amateur, has displayed great experi- 

 mental ingenuity, and his remarkable construction of 

 the "dust-counter" has provided a permanent scien- 

 tific appurtenance of precision to the physicist and 



