56 - SCIENCE AND THE PRESS 
resplendent in a new suit of Welsh Flannel’. What I complain 
of is that science is not taken in hand sufficiently seriously by 
the Press itself, and that in addition to giving the public what 
it wants, it does not hold out a higher ideal of scientific 
interest. But I go further than that—I am obliged to say 
that even in giving the public the oleograph and brass band 
sort of science which it appreciates, very few newspapers are 
in a position to protect themselves against publishing inaccur- 
acies of the most glaring kind, and broadly speaking when I 
see a scientific news paragraph in a paper (I do not mean an 
article)—well, I am prepared for anything. Let me give one 
or two illustrations of what I mean. Here for example is a_ 
paragraph headed ‘A Scene at a Mudborough Committee.’ 
‘In consequence of a difference of opinion between Alderman 
A B , the chairman, and Mr, C D , the vice- 
chairman, as to the method of producing formic sulphate, the 
Chairman left the room and the business had to be adjourned.’ 
Now what is there wrong here? Only this, that there is no 
such substance in heaven or earth as formic sulphate. You 
will observe they adjourned the business, and I don’t wonder 
at it. Here is another—this time from a paper whose title 
suggests the very opposite of fiction. It is one of those feminine 
letters from a lady of fashion, which I understand are usually 
composed by elderly gentlemen. It extols a gas stove for 
which it says no flue is required for carrying away the products 
of combustion, ‘ for the very sufficient reason that there are no 
such products, combustion being perfect’. Here is a calm 
enunciation of the destructibility of matter. Again, from a 
London daily: ‘The theory advanced by Mme. Cavalier ina — 
lecture on Thursday that diamonds have sex, and if placed 
together in a box will multiply, is described by Professor 
Pringle, of the Museum of Practical Geology, South Kensington, 
as absolutely untenable. All jewels are the result of chemical 
production, he says, and unless fused to liquid form it is 
