56 



NATURE 



[September i8, 1919 



The old system of the rule of politician chiefs whose 

 only or main function is to sign the edicts of heads of 

 departments seems to have returned in full force, 

 and the coming of the cleansing Hercules that many 

 people desire for the War Office does not seem to be 

 within the bounds of possibility. 



The real cause of the prevailing neglect of science, 

 with all its pernicious results, is that almost all our 

 political leaders have received the most favoured and 

 fashionable form of public school education, and are 

 without any scientific education. An education in 

 classics and dialectics, the education of a lawver, may 

 Be a good thing — for lawyers ; though even that is 

 doubtful. For the training of men who are to govern 

 a State the very existence of which depends on 

 applications of science, and on the proper utilisation 

 of available stores of energy, it is ludicrouslv unsuit- 

 able. We hear of the judicial frame of mind which 

 lawyers bring to the discussion of matters of high 

 jjolicy, but in the majority of scientific cases it is the 

 open mind of crass ignorance. The result is lament- 

 table ; I myself heard a very eminent counsel declare 

 in a case of some importance, involving practical 

 applications of science, that one of Newton's laws of 

 motion was that "friction is the cause of oscilla- 

 tions"! .\nd the helplessness of some eminent 

 counsel and judges in patent cases is a bvword. 



As things are, eminence in science is no qualifica- 

 tion ; it would even seem to be a positive disqualifica- 

 tion for any share in the conduct of the affairs of 

 this great industrial country. The scientific sides of 

 public questions are ignored— nay, in manv cases our 

 rulers are unconscious of their existence. Recently in 

 a discussion on the Forestw Bill in the House of 

 Lords a member of that illustrious body made the 

 foolish assertion that forestry had nothing to do with 

 science ; all that was needed was to dig holes and 

 stick young trees into them. Could fatuity go further? 

 This hereditary legislator who, as things are, has it 

 in his power to manage, or mismanage, the conver- 

 sion into available energy of the radiation beneficently 

 showered on a certain area {his area) of this country 

 of ours does not seem to be aware that the growing 

 of trees is a highly scientific industry ; that there are 

 habits and diseases of trees which have been pro- 

 foundly studied ; that, in short, the whole subject of 

 sylviculture bristles with scientific problems, the solu- 

 tions of which have by patient labour been to a con- 

 siderable extent obtained. 



Take also the case of the dyes industries. The 

 publicists and the good business men — the supermen 

 of the present age — \vho wish to control and foster 

 an industry which owes its very existence to an 

 English chemist, refuse to have on the committee 

 which is to manage this important affair any man 

 of scientific eminence, and no remonstrance has ,;ny 

 effect. These great business men are, as a rule, not 

 scientific at all. They are all very well for finance ; 

 in other respects their businesses are run by their 

 works-managers, and, in general, they are not 

 remarkable for paying handsomely their scientific 

 assistants. 



I myself once heard it suggested by an eminent 

 statesman that an electrical efficiency of 1)8 per cent, 

 might by the progress of electrical science be increased 

 fourfold. This, 1 am afraid, is more or less typical 

 of the highly educated classical man's appreciation of 

 the law of conservation of energy ; and he is — save 

 the mark ! — to be our Minister or Proconsul and the 

 conservator of our national resources. It is not sur- 

 prising, therefore, that in connection with a subject 

 which for several weeks occupied a great space in the 

 newspapers, and is now agitating a large section of 

 the community, the nationalisation of our coal-minesi 

 there was not a single word, except perhaps a casual 



NO. 2603, VOL. 104] 



vague reference in the report of the chairman, to the 

 question which is intimately bound up with any solu- 

 tion of the problem which statesmen may adopt — 1 

 mean the question of the economic utilisation, in the 

 interests of the country at large, of this great inherit- 

 ance which Nature has bestowed upon us. In short, 

 are Tom, Dick, and Harry, if we may so refer to 

 noble and other coalowners, and to our masters the 

 miners, to remain free to waste or to conserve at 

 their own sweet will, or to exploit as they please, this 

 necessity of the country's existence? 



The fact is that until scientific education has gone 

 forward far beyond the point it has yet reached, until 

 it has become a living force in the world of politics 

 and statesmanship, we shall scarcely escape the ruin 

 of our country. The business men will not save us ; 

 as has been said with much truth, the products of 

 modern business methods are, to a great extent, 

 slums and millionaires. It lies to a great extent with 

 scientific men themselves to see that reform is forth- 

 coming; and more power to the British Science Guild 

 and to any other agency which can help to bring about 

 this much-needed result. 



While scientifically educated men, whether doing 

 special worl-5, or acting as officers, have been held of 

 far slighter account in the Services than they ought 

 to have been, for physicists as such there has been 

 little or no recognition, except, I believe, when they 

 happened to be ranked as research chemists ! How 

 did this happen? Why, the various trades asserted 

 themselves, and the result was a sufficiently long list 

 of "reserved occupations"- — a list remarkable both for 

 its inclusions and for its exclusions. There was^ for 

 example, a class of "opticians," many of whom have 

 no knowledge of optics worth mentioning. They are 

 merely traders. One of these, for example, the pro- 

 prietor of a business, made a plaintive appeal to 

 myself as to how he could determine the magnifying 

 powers of certain field-glasses which he wished the 

 Ministry of Munitions to purchase. But for a vourg 

 scientific man, even if he were an eminent author! ly 

 on theoretical and practical optics, but who was not 

 in the trade, there was no place. 



Research chemists received their recognition in 

 consequence of the existence of the Institute of 

 Chemistry. I am extremely glad to find that some- 

 thing is now being done to found an Institute of 

 Physics. I hope this movement will be successful, 

 and that it will be thoroughly practical and efficient. 

 I hope its president and council, its members and its 

 associates, will be jealous for science, and especially 

 for physics. It ought to be a thoroughly hard-working 

 body, without any frills, destitute of work value. 

 Tliey have an example in the General Medical 

 Council, which has so effectively cared for the 

 interests of the medical profession. 



I am glad that something is being done at last fo» 

 the organisation of scientific research. This move- 

 ment has started well in several, if not in all, respects, 

 and I wish it all success. There are, however, one 

 or two dangers to be avoided, and I am not sure — 

 I may be much too timid and suspicious — that they 

 are fully recognised, and that the result will not be 

 too much of a bureaucracy. Somehow or other I am 

 reminded bv the papers I have seen of the remark of 

 a poor man who, asking charity pf someone in Glas- 

 gow, was referred to the Charity Organisation Society 

 of that city. "No, thank you," he said; "there is a 

 good deal more organisation than charity about th.it 

 institution." So I hope that in the rnovement on 

 foot the organisation will not be more prominent 

 than the science, and the organisers than the scientific 

 workers. 



There is, to my mind, too much centralisation 

 aimed at. Everything is to be done from London ; 



