V THE INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION 199 



it by some other name as soon as it becomes useful 

 knowledge. 



The fact is, that a large part of the indifference to 

 science in this country, and the notion that science is 

 dreamy, vague, untrustworthy and useless to practical 

 men, has arisen from the fact that these worthy 

 practical men have very often allowed themselves to 

 be imposed upon by mere quacks and pretenders, who 

 assume the language and authority of science without 

 any credentials whatever, and lead the practical men 

 astray. Such quackery in science has been by no 

 means unusual in this country, owing to the almost 

 complete destitution of the wealthy classes in respect 

 of scientific education. Practical men have, as a rule, 

 not even a smattering of scientific training, and cannot 

 distinguish true from false science, cannot tell which 

 is the quack and wdiich the man of real knowledge. 

 Equally unfortunate in this respect, in former times, 

 have been the members of the executive and delibera- 

 tive branches of our successive governments, so that — 

 in days which we may hope are past — ignorant pre- 

 tenders to scientific knowledge have been, in good 

 faith, placed in responsible positions, and have helped 

 to justify the notion that modern science is a wind- 

 bag of theories, and of little use to the practical man. 



Such causes — namely, a general mistrust of so-called 

 science, and to a small extent a painful experience in 

 especial connection with fisheries, of the results of 

 placing confidence in quacks who have falsely pretended 

 to scientific knowlede^e — seem to me to be accountable 

 for the fact that in the British Islands, neither publicly 



