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.' 

 c 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 in a 

 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 



