November 28, 1918 



NATURE 



= 55 



ilisi societies representing practical!] the whole 



research workers in their respective subjects 



might in some cases be able and willing to carry out 



Functions contemplated for the subject cotn- 



es "I the association. In such cases, to avoid 

 duplication of organisation, it might perhaps l» 

 arranged for the corresponding subject committees 



dispensed with and for the societies in question 

 to have- the ncccssan representation on the asso- 

 ciation. 



Bui it is fell thai the aims of the association should 

 go beyond the better co-ordination of existing work 

 and endowments, There is no doubt that if the 

 national life is to be increasingly vitalised by scientific 

 research and the development of the scientific habit 

 of mind, the tanks of scientific workers must be much 



amph reinforced from the best human material. 



1 rdei to secun such a result it is essential that 



i 1 ,11 eer should be open to the competent 



research worker. It is therefore proposed to formu- 



in extensive scheme of State endowment of re- 

 search which would afford opportunities for young and 

 lising students to establish themselves in research 

 and to secure to the ablest of these the oppor- 

 tune • 1 devoted mainh to the continued 

 pursuit of scientific investigation. It is not intended 

 action which would lead to the separation 



search and teaching functions, which are often 

 fruitfully combined in existing circumstances, but 

 rather to secun condition- in which those who 



are best fitted fot research ma\ devote themselves 

 mainh- or wholh to research without anxiety. 



Finally, it is thought that tin association might iw- 

 fully play a leading part in impressing upon the atten- 

 tion of the public by carefullj organised propaganda 

 along definite lines the importance of scientific research 

 in all its aspects, and especial!} the fundamental value 

 ol scientific method in every department of national 

 ind tie special claims of pure science to national 



lie- proposed organisation and functions include: 

 Information, Intelligence, and Idvice. [a) Special, 

 dealing with the needs of and facilities for research in 

 the different branches of scienci . Organ : Subject com- 

 mittees and secretaries, intermediary between indivi- 

 duals and institutions. These subject committees and 

 tlvir secretaries would he the most important part 

 of the organisation so far as detailed intelligence work 



in. ei md. I he\ would form .1 suit of internal 

 us system of research in the different subjects, 

 .old the threads would lie gathered up In the council 

 w hen it was a question of the need for fresh endow- 

 ments. The subject committees would not he limited 

 in membership, most of their work being done in 

 spondence, and would he made realh representa- 

 tive of the whole of the research in each subject. 



enen it intelligence and advisory functions. 



: Council. General Purposes Committee, General 



Secretary, intermediary between Government and other 



bodies controlling funds available for research on one 



hand, and institutions and individuals carrying on re- 



h on the other, parti) through the agency of the 



■ nominees. 



Propaganda. — Impressing upon public atten- 

 tion the value and importance ol scientific method and 

 s. i. pi ii'ii- research in ever) department of life, 

 an : Propaganda Committee and Propaganda 

 ury. 

 I) Formulation of Scheme of State Endowment 

 h. Organ: General /' mmittee 



mncil. 

 The proposed working of the organisation here out- 

 1 ibed in the circular 1 1 ft rt ed to. 

 NO. 2,61. VOL. TO?" 



SCIENCE AND THE FUTURE. 1 

 A MATTER which we now see constantly referred 

 ^~*- to, in ever) newspaper and by many public 



is, is what is known as reconstruction — that 

 say, the putting of our affairs in order after the 

 finish of the war. Now, undoubtedly the war has 

 been responsible for an enormous amount of destruc- 

 tion of capital; but when estimates are given, as 

 they constantly are given, of the percentage of loss 

 in Belgium, France, Italy, Serbia, and other coun- 

 tries, it is not usually borne in mind that capital does 

 not merely consist of gold and silver, of bricks and 

 mortar, of furniture and fitments, or even of rail- 

 ways, steamships, and machinery mostly things that 

 in process of time fall into decay — that the main 

 capital of the modern world does not consist of the 

 concrete constructions of labour or of material things 

 at all, but of scientific knowdedge. If we could 

 imagine such a catastrophe as destruction on the scale 

 that has recently taken place in the fighting zones 

 spread over the whole civilised world, so that nothing 

 was left anywhere at all of the material handiwork of 

 the past few hundreds of years, this would not neces- 

 sarily mean the relapse of mankind in general to the 

 savage state of our prehistoric ancestors, who lived 

 before the accumulation of our present priceless 

 scientific knowledge had even begun. That this is 

 so we see clearly from the lessons of the past. For 

 thousands of vears the manual labourer has been at 

 work, and untold have been the products of his toil. 

 How manv of these products, however, have come 

 down to the present day? Where are now the splendid 

 constructions, the magnificent buildings, the costly 

 and varied manufactures of ancient Babylon, Egvot. 

 Greece, and Rome? A few scattered fragments of a 

 purely antiquarian interest, but of no utilitarian value, 

 are all that are left. The greater portion have entirely 

 disappeared. But not so the products of the ancient 

 mind. These, to a large extent, still endure. For 

 all our industries, all our .arts and crafts, and all 

 our sciences have their roots in the distant past. 

 Some knowledge of importance max. in the crash of 

 empires and the i'reat social convulsions that have 

 taken place, have been lost or forgotten, but com- 

 paratively not much; while, owing to the invention 

 of printing, and the consequent easy multiplication 

 of records, this is never likely to happen again — at 

 any rate, on a considerable scale. 



Thus to reconstruct the material things now tem- 

 porarily destroyed will take only a very small fraction 

 of the labour that had to be expended, or of the 

 centuries of time that had to pass, while, by slow 

 degrees and arduous effort, man learnt how to bring 

 all these things about. For the mere construction of 

 the material paraphernalia of civilisation is in value 

 as nothing to the knowdedge of how to construct 

 them. Taking this into consideration, we recognise 

 the fallacy of the doctrine that .all wealth is 

 (hie to manual labour, and we see how little of the 

 capital of the world is really due to mere handiwork. 

 however skilled, and how much to the mental efforts 

 of exceptional men. who through countless genera- 

 tions. I>\ their investigations, discoveries, and inven- 

 tions, have rendered possible all our wonderful pos- 

 sessions. When, therefore, we compile estimates of 

 the losses due to the war, let us not forget that 

 f/reatest asset, the vast store of knowdedge that 

 Science has gathered together for us the heirs of all 

 - still intact. It is a si,, re that has slowly 

 accumulating ever since the beginning of the 



1 Abrdged from ihe inaugural address delivered before ihc R0v.1l s 1 ietv 

 c,t Art. on November 20 bv tbe chairman of the c n. ll, ' \ Campbell 

 Swinlon, F.R.S. 



