September 1 8,. 1919] 



NATURE 



53 



It seems to me that a good many people allow them- 

 selves to be misled by a name. The name " humanity" 

 is given in the Scottish universities to the department 

 of the Latin language and literature, and in a wider 

 usage the study of Latin and Greek is referred to as 

 that of litterae humaniores. But I am not aware that 

 there is any more humanity, in the common accept- 

 ance of the term, about these studies than there is in 

 many others. And experience has shown that the 

 assertion that these studies have a special refining 

 influence, while the pursuit of science has a brutalising 

 tendency, is based on ignorance and partiality. The 

 truth is that the man who knows nothing of science, 

 and he who has neglected the study of letters, are 

 both imperfectly educated. 



Well, the accusation I refer to may be dismissed 

 without argument. Tliis is certainly' not the time 

 or the place for a discussion of the causes of the 

 war, or of the ethics of the extraordinary methods 

 introduced into warfare by our enemies. But one 

 thing I will say in this connection. Even poison gas 

 is innocent in itself, and it occurs as a product in 

 perfectly indispensable and eminently useful cheinjcal 

 processes. The extraordinary potencv of scientific 

 knowledge for the good of civilised mankind is fre- 

 quently conjoined with a potency for evil ; but the 

 responsibility for an inhuman use of it does not lie 

 with the scientific investigator. The guilt lies at the 

 door of the High Command, of the high and mighty 

 persons, themselves in feeling and temper utterly un- 

 scientific, who approved and directed the emplovment 

 of methods of attack which destroyed the wounded 

 and helpless, and wrecked for ever the health of many 

 of those who emerged alive from the inferno. 



As regards the help which British science was able 

 to render in the defence against the German attack 

 and the operations which followed when the fortune of 

 war changed so dramatically, and the enemy was driven 

 back towards the chain of fastnesses from behind 

 which he originally emerged, one or two obvious 

 reflections must have occurred to everyone. In one 

 form or another these have been referred to by various 

 writers, but I may recall one or two of them ; for as 

 a people we are incorrigibly forgetful, and appear to 

 be almost incapable of profiting from experience, 

 which, according to the Latin proverb, teaches even 

 fools. 



Nearly twenty years ago the urgent necessitv for 

 the reorganisation of our military machinery had been, 

 in the view of civilians at least, who had to bear the 

 cost of the war in South .'\frica, demonstrated ad 

 nauseam, but nothing of real importance in the wav 

 of reforming the War Off"ice seems to have been done. 

 The shocks we had received were forgotten, and soon 

 the nation returned to its insular complacency, the 

 old party cries resounded in the market-place, the 

 hacks of party politics again resumed their occupa- 

 tion of camouflage and hoodwinking, and the country 

 drifted on towards its fate. 



-All this time an enormously powerful war machine 

 was being built up on the Continent, and its different 

 parts tested so far as that could be done without actual 

 Warfare. The real obje;t of these preparations was 

 carefully veiled by an appearance of frankness and 

 professions of goodwill, though it was revealed every 

 row and then by the indiscretions of the German 

 military caste. To these indications and to others 

 the country, ostrich-like, closed its eyes. 



Now it isi often alleged that men engrossed in the 

 pursuit of science are unbusinesslike, but I think that 

 if there had been any truly scientific element in the 

 personnel of the Government (there never is by any 

 chance), attention would have been directed at a much 

 earlier period to our hopeless state of unpreparedness 



NO. 2603, VOL. 104] 



for the storm which was gradually gathering against 

 us on the other side of the German Ocean. In discus- 

 sions of our unpreparedness the emphasis has been 

 placed on our lack of arms and munitions. But im- 

 portant as these are, the entire absence of a scientific 

 organisation to guide us in the exigencies of a defen- 

 sive war with the most scientific and most militarv 

 nation of Europe was even more serious. 



It is this deficiency in our organisation — a deficiency 

 the avoidance of which would have had no provocative 

 effect whatever — which concerns us here very specially. 

 It is, moreover, a deficiency which, in spite of tiie 

 lessons they have received, has, I fear, not yet been 

 brought home to our military chiefs. When war 

 broke out nothing had been done to ensure the utilisa- 

 tion for special service, in the multitude of scientific 

 operations which war as carried on by the German 

 armies involved, of the great number of well-trained 

 young scientific men available in the countrv. The 

 one single idea of our mobilisers was to send men to 

 the trenches to kill Germans, and for this simple dutv 

 all except certain munition workers and men in the 

 public services were summoned to the .Armv. Some 

 modifications were made afterwards, but I am speak- 

 ing of the failure of prevision at the outset. The 

 need of men for special ser\'ice, the inevitable expan- 

 sion of the Navy for patrol and other purposes and 

 the like, were, if they were thought of at all, put 

 aside, without regard to the difficulties which would 

 inevitably arise if these matters were delayed. Even 

 how the new soldiers were to be trained, almost with- 

 out rifles or machine-guns, to meet the Germans in 

 the field nobody knew. And I for one believe that 

 but for the vigour and energy of Lord Kitchener, and 

 the almost too late expression of conviction of our 

 danger, and consequent action, by one outstanding 

 politician, all would have been lost. We worried 

 through, but at a loss of life and treasure from which 

 it will take us long to recover, and which I could 

 wish seemed to weigh more heavily on the minds and 

 consciences of politicians. 



The Germans, I believe, had a complete record, not 

 only of all their men fitted only for the rank-and-file, 

 but also of all who had been trained to observe and 

 measure. For the use of even the verv simplest 

 apparatus of observation a certain expertness in read- 

 ing graduated scales, and generally a certain amount 

 of trained intelligence, is required. For this the labora- 

 tories of Germany amply provided, and the provision 

 had its place in the enemy's mobilisation. Our people 

 apparently did not even know that such a need existed 

 or might arise. 



In a letter which I sent to the council of the Roval 

 Society at the end of 1915 I ventured to propose that 

 the Royal Society might set on foot an organisation 

 of some such character as the following : — First, a 

 central committee should be established, in some 

 degree representative of the different centres of 

 scientific teaching and work in pure and applied 

 science. Then this committee should nominate repre- 

 sentatives at each centre, at least one at each uni- 

 versity ■ or college, and one at the headquarters of 

 each local society, such, for example, as the Institu- 

 tion of Engineers and Shipbuilders of Scotland and 

 the similai; society which represents the North-East of 

 England and has its offices at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 

 This arrangement, it was hoped, would enable the 

 central committee to obtain readily information as to 

 what men were available, and would therefore do 

 something to bring the schools of science, and all the 

 great workshops and laboratories of applied science, 

 into co-operation. Thus could be formed at once a 

 list of men available for particular posts, for the task 

 of solving the problemr that were certain to arise 



