454 



NATURE 



[September io, 190; 



trouble in the future. I could give you several other ex- 

 amples which show that our ignorance of the general 

 balance of animal and vegetable life in the large reservoirs 

 is profound, and that a systematic inquiry conducted by 

 competent persons would most certainly lead to knowledge 

 which would be of great scientific importance, and in the 

 long run remunerative to the community. 



I do not think that we can expect that any one of the 

 municipal authorities will feel justified in bearing the cost 

 of such an investigation. The problems that one corpor- 

 ation has to face are very much the same as those that 

 others have met ; and each corporation hopes to profit by 

 the successful and neglect the unsuccessful experiments of 

 its neighbours. An investigation such as this, which is 

 really for the benefit of the whole community, should be 

 conducted by a central authority at the public expense. 



The scientific investigation of the problems that are con- 

 nected with the maintenance and extension of our sea 

 fisheries is another matter that requires the very careful 

 attention of the zoologists of the present day. The valuable 

 work that has already been done by the officers of the 

 British Marine Biological Association, the Lancashire Sea 

 Fisheries Committee, the Scottish Fishery Board, and other 

 bodies is of a nature sufficiently encouraging to justify us 

 in asking for the necessary means and appliances for still 

 further developments of the inquiry. There is, however, 

 a great need for a free discussion Ijy those who are com- 

 petent to speak on the subject to determine and, if possible, 

 to come to some conclusion upon the question of the best 

 and most profitable lines that the inquiry should take in the 

 immediate future, and the establishment of such co-operation 

 as is necessary by the different authorities to prevent dupli- 

 cation where it is unnecessary, and simultaneous observ- 

 ations of similar phenomena on different parts of the coast 

 when it is considered desirable. The report of the Com- 

 mittee on Ichthyological Research, 1902, has shown that 

 there is already in this country a good deal of activity in 

 various branches of investigation of the fisheries problems, 

 but the authorities are not on all points in agreement as 

 to the best plan or course to pursue in future. I cannot 

 but hope that if some conference were held, at which those 

 zoologists who have made a special study of these matters 

 were present, the principal differences of opinion might be 

 cleared up and a unanimous report presented to the 

 authorities. 



I have felt very strongly for some time past, and I know 

 there are many of my colleagues who agree with me, that 

 the zoologists of this country are under some disadvantage 

 in not being provided with the necessary machinery for full 

 discussion of matters which affect the welfare of the science 

 as a whole. There are several societies which receive, 

 discuss, and publish papers on various branches of zoological 

 research, but they do not, and from the nature of their 

 constitution cannot, give effective utterance to the general 

 or unanimous opinion of professional zoologists on matters 

 of their common interests. There is no society which all 

 serious students and teachers of zoology feel is the one 

 society which it is their duty and in their own interests to 

 jom. Some join the Zoological Societv of London, others 

 the Linnean Society, others, again, the Royal Microscopical, 

 Entomological, or Malacological Societies, or some com- 

 bination of two or more of them. There is no common 

 ground on which we meet for the discussion of such subjects 

 as those I have just mentioned in this Address. In the 

 early days of the British Association this Section supplied 

 the needs which we feel now. It was the Society, if I may 

 call It such, which all the zoologists of the time made a 

 special effort to attend. Important matters were fully dis- 

 cussed by the most competent authorities, and people felt 

 that the prevalent opinion on anv subject e.xpressed by 

 Section D was the prevalent opinion of men of science 

 throughout the country. 



In concluding this portion of my Address, I may express 

 the hope that when the Association meets next vear at 

 Cambridge some steps may be taken to render the organisa- 

 tion which we already possess in connection with this 

 Section more generally useful and more efficacious than it 

 IS at present. 



In the opening sentences of my Address I used an ex- 

 pression which some of my hearers may have considered 

 open to criticism. Let me take this opportunity of saying, 

 NO. 1767, VOL. 681 



then, that by using the expression " useful human know- 

 ledge " I did not intend to express an opinion that there 

 is any knowledge of the character that is expounded and 

 discussed in these sections of the Association which can be 

 called useless knowledge. 



A distinction, however, is frequently drawn between 

 knowledge that can be directly applied to the arts and crafts 

 and knowledge which, on the face of it, appears to us at 

 present to be only of general scientific interest. For ex- 

 ample, in the award ot the Exhibition (1851) Scholarships 

 and Bursaries, the candidates must still give e«dence of 

 capacity for advancing science or its application by original 

 research in some branch of science, the extension of which 

 is especially important to our national industries. We can 

 rejoice most cordially in the successful developments of the 

 technical institutions in the country, we can heartily join 

 hands with our colleagues in other sciences in urging upon 

 the authorities the encouragement of these branches of 

 science which have a direct bearing upon our industries, but 

 we have a no less important duty to perform in claiming for 

 those branches of science that have apparently no such direct 

 application the needful sympathy and encouragement. I 

 venture to say that at the time the Association last met in 

 Southport no one would have ventured to predict that the 

 study of the anatomy and life-history of the Diptera, or the 

 general biology of the minute sporozoa, would have any 

 direct bearing upon the development of our industries. 

 But to-day, by our knowledge of the mosquito Anopheles, 

 and the sporozoan parasite it carries, we are in a position 

 to destroy or ameliorate the malaria pest which has hindered 

 the commercial development of so many of our colonies in 

 tropical countries, and by encouraging the development of 

 such countries we are assisting to a very material extent 

 our home industries and the general trade of the country. 

 In this, as in so many other cases, thp benefit to industry 

 and commerce has come from an unexpected quarter of the 

 field of zoological research. Those who were working 

 within the narrow limits of what is called applied science 

 could never have discovered the facts which we now regard 

 as of extreme importance, however well equipped they were 

 with laboratories and appliances and endowments for 

 research. 



It will be of very little profit to this country to endow 

 munificently the technical institutions and those branches 

 of science to which the adjective "applied" is given, to 

 build British " Charlottenburgs," and to attract by hand- 

 some salaries the most distinguished professors to the study 

 of the application of science, if at the same time we starve 

 and allow to sink into insignificance the fundamental 

 sciences upon which the whole superstructure rests. It 

 does not need a prophet to foretell that a great disaster 

 will occur if we add story to story of our house of education 

 without widening and broadening the basis upon which it 

 rests. 



Many of us, I am afraid, are too much inclined to believe 

 that the 'intellectual portion of the community has at last 

 awakened to the importance of the work in the fields of 

 pure science, that the old prejudice against us who indulge 

 what is called our harmless curiosity is dying out, and that 

 our science is bound to receive a fair share of encourage- 

 ment and attention in the progress of the modern develop- 

 ments of science and learning. 



The distinction that is drawn between pure and applied 

 science is, however, in danger of being broadened and 

 deepened rather than diminished by the recent activity in 

 the foundation of schools and colleges for technical instruc- 

 tion. There are, it is true, several eminent and distinguished 

 persons who recognise the danger and do their best to avoid 

 It but this fact IS not in itself sufficient to justify us in any 

 relaxation of our efforts on behalf of the maintenance and 

 development of those branches of the sciences which are 

 usually supposed to have no direct or technical application 



In the wide field of zoological research there are manv 

 subjects now being investigated and discussed which at 

 present, seem to us to have but a remote bearing upon 'anv 

 practical problem of industry or medicine. Of all these 

 subjects there are two which have excited during the past 

 ten years extraordinary interest, and are from many points 

 of view subjects of greatest possible importance. I refer 

 to the subject of the natural variations of animals and 

 plants and the problem of the hereditary transmission of 

 characters from generation to generation. " 



I 



