446 



NATURE 



[September io, 1903 



somehow or another, to be deficient in that higher form of 

 imagination, in that longer sight, which sees in studies which 

 have no obvious, necessary, or immediate result the foundation 

 of the knowledge which shall give far greater happiness to 

 mankind than any immediate, material, industrial advancement 

 can possibly do ; and I fear, and greatly fear, that, lacking that 

 imagination, we have allowed ourselves to lag in the glorious 

 race run now by civilised countries in pursuit of knowledge, and 

 we have permitted ourselves so far to too large an extent to 

 •depend upon others for those additions to our knowledge which 

 surely we might have made for ourselves." — Mr. Balfour, 

 Nature, May 30, 1901. 



" I would remind you that all history shows that progress — 

 national progress of every kind — depends upon certain indivi- 

 •duals rather than upon the mass. Whether you take religion, 

 or literature, or political government, or art, or commerce, the 

 new ideas, the great steps, have been made by individuals of 

 superior quality and genius who have, as it were, dragged the 

 mass of the nation up one step to a higher level. So it must 

 be in regard to material progress. The position of the nation 

 to-day is due to the efforts of men like Watt and Arkwright, or, 

 in our own time, to the Armstrongs, the Whitworths, the 

 Kelvins, and the Siemenses. These are the men who, by their 

 discoveries, by their remarkable genius, have produced the 

 ideas upon which others have acted and which have permeated 

 the whole mass of the nation and affected the whole of its 

 proceedings. Therefore what we have to do, and this is our 

 special task and object, is to produce more of these great men." 

 — Mr. Chamberlain, Times, January 18, 1901. 



I finally come to the political importance of research. A 

 country's research is as important in the long run as its battle- 

 ships. The most eloquent teaching as to its national value 

 we owe to Mr. Carnegie, for he has given the sum of 2,000,000/. 

 to found a system of endowments, his chief purpose bjing, in his 

 own words, " to secure if possible for the United States of 

 America leadership in the domain of discovery and the utilisation 

 of new forces for the benefit of man." 



Here is a distinct challenge to Britain. Judging by experience 

 in this country, in spite of the magnificent endowment of research 

 by Mond and Lord Iveagh, the only sources of possible competi- 

 tion in the British interest is the State, which certainly could 

 not put the 1/8000 part of the accumulated wealth of the country 

 to better use, for without such help both our universities and 

 our battleships will become of rapidly dwindling importance. 



It is on this ground that I have included the importance of 

 endowing research among the chief points to which I have been 

 anxious to draw your attention. 



The Need of a Scientific National Council. 



In referring to the new struggle for existence among civilised 

 communities, I pointed out that the solution of a large 

 number of scientific problems is now daily required for the 

 State service, and that in this and other ways tne source and 

 standard of national efficiency have been greatly changed. 



Much evidence bearing upon the amount of scientific know- 

 ledge required for the proper administration of the public 

 departments and the amount of scientific work done by and for 

 the nation was brought before the Royal Commission on Science 

 presided over by the late Duke of Devonshire now more than a 

 •quarter of a century ago. 



The Commission unanimously recommended that the State 

 •should be aided by a scientific council in facing the new 

 problems constantly arising. 



But while the home Government has apparently made up its 

 mind to neglect the advice so seriously given, it should be a 

 source of gratification to us all to know that the application of 

 the resources of modern science to the economic, industrial and 

 agricultural development of India has for miny years engaged 

 the earnest attention of the Government of that country. The 

 Famine Commissioners of 1878 laid much stress on the institu- 

 tion of scientific inquiry and experiment designed to lead to the 

 gradual increase of the food-supply and to the greater stability 

 of agricultural outturn, while the experience of recent years has 

 indicated the increasing importance of the study of the economic 

 products and mineral-bearing tracts. 



Lord Curzon has recently ordered the heads of the various 

 scientific departments to form a board, which shall meet twice 



NO. 1767, VOL. 68] 



annually, to begin with, to formulate a programme and to review 

 past work. The board is also to act as an advisory committee 

 to the Government, 1 providing among other matters for the 

 proper coordination of all matters of scientific inquiry affecting 

 India's welfare. 



Lord Curzon is to be warmly congratulated upon the step 

 he has taken, which is certain to bring benefit to our great 

 dependency. 



The importance of such a board is many times greater at home, 

 with so many external as well as internal interests to look after, 

 problems common to peace and war, problems requiring the 

 help of the economic as well as of the physical sciences. 



It may be asked. What is done in Germany, where science is 

 fostered and utilised far more than here ? 



The answer is, there is such a council. I fancy very much 

 like what our Privy Council once was. It consists of repre- 

 sentatives of the Ministry, the universities, the industries, and 

 agriculture. It is small, consisting of about a dozen members, 

 consultative, and it reports direct to the Emperor. It 

 does for industrial war what military and so called defence 

 councils do for national armaments : it considers everything 

 relating to the use of brain-power in peace, from alterations in 

 school regulations and the organisation of the universities, to 

 railway rates and fiscal schemes, including the adjustment of 

 duties. I am informed that what this council advises generally 

 becomes law. 



It should be pretty obvious that a nation so provided must 

 have enormous chances in its favour. It is a question of drilled 

 battalions against an undisciplined army, of the use of the 

 scientific spirit as opposed to the hope of " muddling through." 



Mr. Haldane has recently reminded us that " the weapons 

 which science places in the hands of those who engage in great 

 rivalries of commerce leave those who are without them, how- 

 ever brave, as badly off as were the dervishes of Omdurman 

 against the Maxims of Lord Kitchener." 



Without such a machinery as this, how can our Ministers and 

 our rulers be kept completely informed on a thousand things of 

 vital importance? Why should our position and requirements 

 as an industrial and thinking nation receive less attention from 

 the authorities than the headdress of the Guards ? How, in the 

 words of Lord Curzon,-' can " the life and vigour of a nation be 

 summed up before the world in the person of its sovereign " 

 if the national organisation is so defective that it has no means 

 of keeping the head of the State informed on things touching the 

 most vital and lasting interests of the country ? We seem t'> be 

 still in the Palaeolithic age in such matters, the chief differeace 

 being that the sword has replaced die flint implement. 



Some may say that it is contrary to our habit to expect 

 the Government to interest itself too much or to spend money 

 on matters rela'.ing to peace ; that war dangers are the only ones 

 to be met or to be studied. 



Bat this view leaves science and the progress of science out of 

 the question. Every scientific advance is now, and will in the 

 future be more and more, applied to war. It is no longer a 

 question of an armed force with scientific corps, it is a question 

 of an armed force scientific from top to bottom. Thank God 

 the Navy has already found this out. Science will ultimately rule 

 all the operations both of peace and war, and therefore the 

 industrial and the fighting population must both have a large 

 common ground of education. Already it is not looking too far 

 ahead to see that in a perfect State there will be a double use of 

 each citizen, a peace use and a war use, and the more science 

 advances the more the old difference between the peaceful 

 citizen and the man at arms will disappear ; the barrack, if it 

 still exists, and the workshop will be assimilated, the land unit, 

 like the battleship, will become a school of applied science, self- 

 contained, in which the officers will be the efficient teachers. 



I do not think it is yet recognised how much the problem of 

 national defence has thus become associated with that with 

 which we are now chiefly concerned. 



These, then, are some of the reasons which compel me to 

 point out that a scientific council, which might be a scientific 

 committee of the Privy Council, in dealing primarily with the 

 national needs in times of peace, would be a source of strength 

 to the nation. 



To sum up, then. My earnest appeal to you is to gird up 

 your loins and see to it that the science of the British Empire 



i Nature, September 4, 1902. 

 - Tillies, September 30, 1902. 



