ioS 



NA TURE 



[December 4, 1902 



Society, for election as Fellows, not more than two 

 persons who, in their opinion, have either rendered con- 

 spicuous service to the cause of science or are such that 

 their election would be of signal benefit to the Society. 



Among other matters, reference is made in the report 

 to work carried on under the auspices of the Society in 

 •connection with malaria, sleeping sickness, the West 

 Indian eruptions, the National Physical Laboratory, the 

 International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, the Royal 

 Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers, Indian observ- 

 atories and the International Association of Academies. 



In the course of his annual address, the President 

 made the following remarks upon the need for increased 

 facilities and encouragement for higher scientific educa- 

 tion and research : — 



The supreme value of research in pure science for the success 

 and progress of the national industries of a country can no 

 longer be regarded as a question open to debate, since this 

 principle has not only been accepted in theory, but put in 

 practice on a large scale, at a great original cost, in a neigh- 

 bouring country, with the most complete success. 



The Physikalischtechnische Reichsanstalt of Berlin, largely 

 due to the scientific foresight of von Ilelmholtz, was instituted 

 in recognition of the principle that all the industrial applications 

 of science rest on the foundation of pure scientific discovery. 

 The institute has for its main objects, (i) the conduct of pure 

 physical research, especially in such directions as are suggested 

 by industrial questions ; (2) the construction and supply of 

 electrical and physical standards ; (3) the verification of instru- 

 ments of precision for scientific and technical purposes. 



The original cost of the institute was more than 200,000/., and 

 its yearly maintenance is not less than 17,000/. During the five 

 years that it has been at work, its influence upon the science 

 and the manufacturing interests of Germany has been most re- 

 markable. Besides the publication of numerous memoirs of 

 original research and of papers on technical processes, the 

 direct results of the work of the institute upon the industries of 

 the country have more than justified the prevision of the 

 founders ; largely, we regret to say, to our own national loss, 

 and to the almost complete passing to that country of the re- 

 nown which was formerly ours in exact scientific measurements, 

 and for the construction of standards and instruments of pre- 

 cision. So true is it, that the investment of public money in 

 scientific research can only be compared to good seed cast into 

 good ground, bringing forth in results a hundred-, or even a 

 thousand-fold. 



The sum voted by the Government for our own National 

 Physical Laboratory, an institution second to none in its 

 national importance, was the very modest one of 13,000/. 

 for the buildings and equipment, and an annual grant of 4000/. 

 for five years in aid of the expenses of conducting the work of 

 the institution. 



The supreme necessity in this country of a more systematic 

 application of scientific methods, both in theory and in prac- 

 tice, to our manufactures and industries, which was so wisely 

 insisted upon by the Prince of Wales on the occasion of 

 his admission to the Fellowship of the Society and again in his 

 address at the opening of the National Laboratory, has since 

 been confirmed and enforced in a remarkable way by the indi- 

 vidual testimonies of thirteen Fellows of this Society, in the 

 evidence which they recently gave, from their own knowledge 

 and experience, either as teachers of science or as leaders and 

 technical advisers in manufactories or commercial undertakings, 

 before a committee of the London Technical Board. 



Their testimony was of no uncertain sound, but showed clearly 

 that the Prince's words of warning were not unneeded, and 

 that, indeed, our industries and commerce are not only in danger, 

 but are actually passing into the hands of other countries, where 

 scientific research is more directly cultivated under the fostering 

 •care of the State. 



The undoubted present state of apathy of the nationil mind 

 in relation to the importance of natural knowledge, and its 

 consequent inability to recognise how entirely and without excep- 

 tion, in every undertaking, success must depend upon our so 

 acting in conformity with the laws of Nature that we have her 

 on our side, as our ally, and not working against us, may arise, 

 conceivably, from either of two causes : from a natural want of 



NO. 1727, VOL. 67] 



enterprise and resourcefulness inherent in the national character, 

 or from a system of education which, relatively to the educa- 

 tional training of other countries, fails to develop and strengthen 

 the qualities of mind which are needed for an adequate appreci- 

 ation of science. 



The former of these two possible causes may surely be dis- 

 missed at once. We need only look back in history to see how 

 this small northern island, by its own innate energy, has come 

 to be supreme over vast regions on all parts of the earth's surface, 

 and is now the head of an empire which engirths the world. 



We are, therefore, left, without power of escape, to the second 

 alternative, namely, that it is our system of higher education 

 which is in fault, clearly through being too mediaeval in spirit. 

 In accordance with the traditions of the past, our higher national 

 education deals with words rather than with things ; it is based 

 too exclusively on the memory of what is known, and too little, 

 if at all, on individual observation and reasoning. 



The evidence seems clear that the present inappreciative 

 attitude of our public men, and of the influential classes of society 

 generally, towards scientific knowledge and methods of thought 

 must be attributed to the too close adherence of our older 

 Universities, and through them, of our public schools, and all 

 other schools in the country downwards, to the traditional 

 methods of teaching of mediaeval times. The incubus of the past 

 makes itself felt, especially in the too strict retention of educa- 

 tional methods in which the first importance is given to the 

 reproduction of knowledge from memory, to the acquiring and 

 applying of what is already known ; with little, if any, guidance 

 and encouragement to the undergraduate student in the direction 

 of research and of independent reasoning. 



With the experience of Germany and the United States before 

 us, the direction in which we should look for a remedy for this 

 slate of things would seem to be for both the teacher and the 

 student to be less shackled by the hampering fetters of examin- 

 ational restrictions, and so for the professor to have greater 

 freedom as to what he shall teach, and the student greater 

 freedom as to what line of study and research he may select as 

 being best suited to his tastes and powers. 



Into the dry bones of the present academic system of reading 

 and examination must enter the living breath of the spirit of 

 research, that is to say, of the individual efforts of each mind, 

 for itself and in its own way, to seek to extend our knowledge 

 in the direction most suited to its powers, by means of original 

 observation and reasoning, and aided by the imagination — it 

 may be in the field in science, of history and literature, or of 

 art. 



One way of bringing about reform in this direction would be 

 to make individual research an indispensable condition of pro- 

 ceeding to degrees higher than the B.A. 



In addition to the intellectual influence of a training in 

 research upon the students themselves, the official recognition 

 by the Universities of an original investigation of some subject, 

 as a necessary condition of obtaining the higher academical 

 honours, could scarcely fail to bring about in the public mind a 

 more appreciative attitude in regard to the importance of 

 original reasoning and discovery, and so to a better understand- 

 ing of the meaning to be attached to natural science and to 

 scientific methods. 



It is obvious that with a fuller knowledge and appreciation of 

 science on the part of the nation, a complete change of its 

 practical attitude in respect to science and science questions 

 would necessarily follow, tor under such conditions public money 

 would be liberally voted by the Government. 



The work of this year's medallists was described as 

 follows : — 



Copley Medal. 



Lord Lister, F.R.S. 



The Copley Medal is awarded to Lord Lister in recognition of 

 the value of his physiological and pathological researches in 

 regard to their influence on the modern practice of surgery. 



When in 1880 a Royal Medal was awarded to him, it was 

 acknowledged that his researches had " not only reformed the 

 whole art of surgery, but given a new impulse to medical science 

 generally." The experience of another twenty years has written 

 out that judgment in still larger letters. Lister's researches 

 have made the world a wholly different world from what it was 

 before. 



