r86 



NATURE 



[May 3, 1917 



THE BRITISH SCIENCE GUILD, 



''PHE eleventh ann^ial meetings of the British 

 •■■ Science Guild was held at the Mansion 

 House on Monday, April 30, when the Lord 

 Mayor presided. After the meeting had been 

 welcomed by the Lord Mayor, Sir William 

 Mather, president of the Guild, opened the pro- 

 ceedings, alluding briefly to the part taken by the 

 British Science Guild in the encouragement of 

 applied science during his tenure of office. He 

 explained also the proposal of the committee of 

 the Ramsay Memorial Fund to raise 100, oooL with 

 the view of founding a chemical laboratory and a 

 series of fellowships in memory of Sir William 

 Ramsay at University College, London. In con- 

 clusion, Sir W'illiam Mather announced his 

 retirement and the nomination of Lord Sydenham 

 to succeed him as president of the Guild. 



The election of Lord Sydenham as president, of 

 the Lord Mayor as a new vice-president, and of the 

 executive committee was moved by Sir Boverton 

 Redwood and seconded by Prof. R. A. Gregory. 

 The' motion, which was carried unanimously, also 

 included the adoption of the annual report. Sir 

 Boverton Redwood referred to the valued services 

 of. Sir W'illiam Mather during his four years of 

 office, and both speakers directed attention to the 

 exceptional progress in the organisation of 

 science during the past year. Prof. Gregor} 

 referred to the great step forward represented b}' 

 the establishment of the Department of Scientific 

 atid Industrial Research, and pointed out that this 

 action -had led to similar developments in 

 Australia, Canada, and the United States. In 

 fact, many of the aims for which the Guild had 

 been working were now in course of realisation. 



The annual report contained a summary of the 

 chief scientific and technical committees which 

 are working in connection with various Govern- 

 ment Departments, and a note on the report 

 recently issued by the Board of Scientific Societies 

 on "National Instruction in Technical Optics." 

 An account was also given of the proceedings of 

 the Metric System Committee, which is engaged in 

 preparing two draft Bills such as would pave the 

 way for the introduction of a metric system of 

 weights and measures. Two appendices dealing 

 with the work of the Canadian and South Austra- 

 lian branches of the Guild • contain interesting 

 accounts of the steps being taken in these 

 countries for the encouragement of applied 

 .science. Under the title "The Promotion of 

 Scientific and Industrial Research" the report also 

 contains a particularly useful analysis of the 

 various movements in this direction in this 

 countrj', In France, and in the United States. 



Following the adoption of the annual report, the 



chairman called upon Lord Sydenham to deliver 



his address on "National Reconstruction," the 



main part of which appears elsewhere in this 



' issue. 



Lord Sydenham's address contained many 

 Illustrations of the results of neglect of scientific 

 knowledge and method, not only as regards omis- 



NO. 2479, VOL. 99] 



sion to utilise directly the scientific, resources of 

 the country, but allso in respect of ni failure in the 

 grasp and foresight such as sound scientific train- 

 ing would confer. Attention was directed to some 

 latent sources of power in the British Isles await- 

 ing development, and to the great resources of 

 the Empire, which can not only produce all the 

 great food staples and raw materials of every kind,, 

 but has almost a monopoly of some of the rarer 

 metals and earths utilised in iixlustry. W^hile 

 emphasising the paramount importance of allotting 

 to science a larger place in national education, 

 Lord Sydenham also expressed the hope that one 

 result of the war would be a wider and loftier out- 

 look on national problems and a greater willing- 

 ness to sink individual claims in concerted action 

 for the good of the community. 



Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, President of the Board of 

 Education, then addressed the meeting. Referring 

 to the present methods of teaching science in our 

 schools, Mr. Fisher said that he believed that such 

 teaching was often quite efficiently conducted ; 

 and yet experience showed that we had not 

 been successful in conveying the instruction in 

 such a way as to grip the imagination of the 

 children, and lead them to follow up and utilise 

 scientific knowledge and method in later life. This 

 was an old country, with old-established busi- 

 nesses, following traditional lines of development 

 and having palpable defects. • In the future it 

 would be necessary for industries to be organised 

 I on a far greater scale, and with a fuller degree of 

 co-operation between those interested ; and also 

 for science to be applied to these businesses in a. 

 much more complete manner than hitherto. 



He had noticed a. tendency to assume that 



scientific and technical instruction was necessarily 



divorced from the "humanities," and even 



inferior in its results from the point of view of 



' making good citizens. He did not believe that there 



' need be any such antagonism between these dif- 



I ferent branches of national instruction. It should 



I be possible to give young people a scientific or 



i technical training which, if conceived on broad 



I and imaginatiA'e lines, would produce a sense of 



discipline and a development of character quite 



equal to that ascribed to the older discipline of 



orators and poets. Forms of technical training 



which did not equip the whole man were bad 



forms. 



In conclusion, Mr, Fisher remarked that outside 

 criticism, while sometimes needful, should be 

 applied with discrimination and knowledge. An 

 instance he had in mind of uninformed criticism' 

 was the charge not infrequently levelled against 

 workers of slackness. No one who had not first- 

 hand knowledge of the conditions under which 

 work was being done at the present time should 

 make such criticisms. He believed a great deal 

 of harm had been done by w^orkers being urged 

 to efforts which were excessive and productive of 

 overstrain. 



Mr. H. G. Wells, who followed Mr. Fisher, 

 said that he had long been an enthusiast for edu- 

 cation, on which any attempt at reconstruction: 



