JuLy 8, 1915| 
NATURE 
521 

out the country, and of utilising so far as practicable 
the laboratories and workshops of our universities and 
technical schools for such purposes as those alluded to 
in the question. I am not at present able to make a 
detailed statement as to the points raised in the last 
part of the question. I take this opportunity of ex- 
pressing my appreciation of the valuable help which 
is already being ungrudgingly given to the Ministry 
of Munitions by men of science and scientific authori- 
ties and institutions.” 
To a great extent that is a very satisfactory reply, 
and from all I have been able to learn I feel con- 
vinced that great efforts are being made at the present 
time by the Minister of Munitions and by the advisers of 
the War Office to utilise the services of scientific men, 
and I need scarcely point out that the Royal Society 
is doing all it possibly can with the view of helping the 
Government in the important objects which it has 
undertaken, but I am very desirous of urging upon 
the Executive Committee of the guild that it should 
use all its efforts to bring about co-operation between 
these various departments, so that some controlling 
power may be established which shall be in direct con- 
nection with the various Departments of State, and 
through which, from these departments, shall be for- 
warded all the various important questions with which 
those departments have to deal. 
After the motion for the election of the Executive 
Committee and the new vice-president 
seconded by Prof. Perry, and carried by the meeting, 
Sir William Ramsay delivered an address, the main 
part of which is subjoined. 
Tue NATIONAL ORGANISATION OF SCIENCE. 
Sixty-three years ago, Dr. Lyon Playfair, after- 
wards ‘Lord Playfair, gave an address on ‘‘ Industrial 
Instruction on the Continent,’ in which he endeavy- 
oured to arouse interest in the applications of science 
to industry. In it he remarked :—‘‘ For many years 
foreign States, acting upon the facilities for communi- 
cation, have expended annually large sums in sending 
highly enlightened men to our country, for the purpose 
of culling from our experience, and of importing it 
into their own land; and we see the effect of the 
experience thus readily acquired, when united with the 
high development of mental labour, in the rapid 
growth of new industries abroad. We still hold to 
mere experience as the sheet anchor of this country, 
forgetful that the moulds in which it was cast are of 
antique shape, and ignorant that new currents have 
swept away the sand which formerly held it fast, so 
that we are in imminent risk of being drifted ashore. 
In fact, this is the great question at issue between 
England and foreign States. With us, there is a wide- 
spread jealousy of science, and a supposed antagonism 
between it and practice. . .. While we continue to 
rely upon local advantages and acquired experience, we 
allow a vast power to arise abroad which is already 
telling against us with wonderful effect.” 
Reiterated appeals have been made to various 
Governments in power since that address was de- 
livered; twenty years later, a Royal Commission was 
appointed under the presidency of the then Duke of 
Devonshire, which unanimously recommended that a 
science council should be appointed by the State. Our 
Science Guild originated as the outcome of a similar 
appeal made by Sir Norman Lockyer in his presi- 
dential address to the British Association, when it met 
at Southport in 1903. 
Our existence as a nation is threatened. Although 
I am and have been for many years an advocate of 
compulsory military service, I cannot but admire the 
response to the call to arms by the Minister of 
War. But it is not enough. Every man and woman 
NO. 2384, VOL. 95| 
had been- 

must aid in combating the enemy. Words are in- 
capable of expressing the detestation with which we 
all view the stupid and vicious methods which the 
Germans have adopted; but we cannot deny that the 
German people have been carefully organised, and that 
it will need every effort on our part, and on that of 
our Allies, to defeat their armies. 
The French Academy of Sciences, at a general meet- 
ing on August 4, offered to its Government all its 
resources in aid of national defence. Committees were 
immediately constituted, and the Under-Secretary of 
State for War placed at the disposal of these com- 
mittees the services of officers equipped with full 
knowledge of the requirements of the War Office. 
On October 29 I wrote an article which appeared 
in Nature, from which I may be allowed to quote 
the following passage :—‘‘There is a class of our 
fellow-subjects which has yet, so far as I am aware, 
not been organised. That is the fellows of the Royal, 
the Chemical, and the Engineering Societies. In their 
own particular provinces they are the pick of the brain 
of the country. This war, in contradistinction to all 
previous wars, is a war in which pure and applied 
science plays a conspicuous part. Has any attempt 
been made to co-ordinate the efforts of the devotees 
of physical, chemical, and engineering science, so that 
they may work together at what for us is the supreme 
problem of all—how to conquer the Germans? For 
if we fail, civilisation as we know it will disappear.” 
This is the first of July, and such an organisation has 
yet to be created. 
Now it is exceedingly difficult to speak openly on 
this matter; for certain steps have been taken. One, 
known to the public, is the appointment of Lord 
Moulton as a general adviser; his efforts were con- 
centrated first on the establishment .of a colour in- 
dustry; and we understand that he has now the task 
of organising the supply of munitions of war. Doubt- 
less much has been done; but neither the general 
public nor the fellows of the various scientific societies 
have any special knowledge of what has been, and 
what is being, accomplished. If he has consulted 
anyone, that has been done privately. It is believed 
that a small-committee was appointed to advise on 
the colour question ; but here again we have no definite 
knowledge. Another fact in public view is the appoint- 
ment of Mr. Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions. 
His counsel to the operatives is doubtless valuable. 
Here, again, a committee is being nominated. 
A deputation of the Royal and Chemical Societies, 
and of the Societies of Public Analysts and of Chemical 
Industry, had an interview with the President of the 
Board of Trade on May 6; with him was Mr. Pease, 
President of the Board of Education. Shortly after, 
Mr. Pease announced in the House of Commons that 
he was considering names of members of an ‘* Advisory 
Council on Industrial Research”; I learn from Mr. 
Henderson, who has succeeded Mr. Pease in the 
Education Department, that he is proceeding to the 
appointment of this Advisory Council. 
Letters have appeared from time to time in the 
Press from fellows of the Royal Society and others 
urging the centralisation of scientific effort. Prof. 
Fleming, whose knowledge of wireless telegraphy is 
second to none, has had no opportunity of helping his 
country, although it is long since he offered his ser- 
vices; and Prof. Armstrong, on June 21, makes the 
reasonable assertion that no half-dozen persons have a 
right to assume that they can do all that is required 
in any branch of science, and reminds the public that 
had his suggestion been adopted that the Royal Society 
should have been grouped, according to subjects, into 
Grand Committees, we should have been many months 
in advance of our present position. 
It has been necessary to survey what has been done 
