August 27, 1908J 



xVA TURE 



597 



The value, even of the results hitherto obtained (and they 

 are few in comparison with the results which it is yet 

 hoped to obtain), is really beyond estimate. That the high 

 iniporlance of scientific inquiry is now generally recognised 

 in South Africa is demonstrated, not only by the conhdence 

 which is now shown throughout the country in the men 

 who have obtained the results to which I have referred, 

 but by the establishment and flourishing growth in South 

 Africa of our own Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, which includes in its ranks not only inen who 

 have made some branch of science their life-study, but 

 many who, like myself, cannot pretend to the possession 

 of accurate scientific knowledge, but arc deeply impressed 

 with the value to this community of the promotion of 

 scientific inquiry and research. 



I have dwelt at length on the subject of the efforts of 

 science in the matter of combating disease because it is 

 an aspect of the question of the advancement of science 

 which more particularly and immediately affects the prac- 

 tical interests of the majority of the South African com- 

 munity. To survey the whole field would be impossible 

 within the available limits of time, and without exhausting 

 the patience of my audience, even if my acquaintance with 

 the various subjects were sutlicient to justify me in dwell- 

 ing on them. 1 should like, however, to bear my testimony 

 to the unselfish devotion to the cause of science which is 

 customarily shown by scientific workers in South Africa, in 

 whatever branch of science they may be interested. In 

 these days of scrambling after fortune, the unrew^arded or 

 scantily rewarded efforts of men searching after scientific 

 truth with the " obstinate humility which is the crown of 

 genius " should compel our respect, our admiration, and 

 our material, no less than our moral, support. 



I say material support, for however unselfish scientific 

 inquirers as a class may be, however ready to devote 

 themselves to their work without special pecuniary reward, 

 they are not, as a rule, men of private means, and it is 

 necessary that they should at least be provided with a 

 sufficiency of bread and butter. Scientific research is 

 necessarily slow. It may be years before any particular 

 line of inquiry leads to a practical result. Long and costly 

 inquiries, such as Koch's inquiry into east coast fever, 

 may even have only a negative result. If, therefore, 

 scientific research is to be pursued in South Africa in the 

 thorough manner in which it ought to be pursued, it 

 should be endowed in some form or other. Such endow- 

 ment mav come either from public sources, so that all 

 the tax-payers contribute to it, or from private sources. 

 It is not for me to prescribe or to suggest from which 

 source it should come. I merely indicate the necessity. 

 I w-ould not, however, wish it to be understood that the 

 South African Governments have neglected their duty in 

 the matter of promotion of scientific research. Far from 

 it. In Cape Colony, the Grahamstow-n Laboratory, where 

 much useful work was done by Edington, was established 

 seventeen years ago, and has since been considerably 

 enlarged. A laboratory and experimental station, in which 

 Lounsbury carried out those remarkable investigations 

 which proved that the Bont tide was the carrier of heart- 

 water, and arrived at other exceedingly valuable and 

 interesting scientific deductions, has been established at 

 Rosebank. The Natal Government has established a 

 laboratory near Maritzburg, at and in connection Avith 

 which Watkins Pitchford and his assistants have done 

 much useful work, notably by making the discovery that 

 horses could be protected against horse-sickness by the 

 exclusion of bltini^ insects, and in the preparation of anti- 

 toxic sera and of anti-venene; and the Transvaal Govern- 

 ment, after liberally subsidising Theiler's epoch-making 

 investigations, has recently built an experimental station, 

 at a cost of some 60,000/., which will bear comparison, so 

 f.ir as design and facilities go, with any such station in 

 the world. .Added to this, the Cape Government, besides 

 incurring large expenditure on rinderpest experiments, con- 

 tributed liberally to defray the out-of-pocket expenses of 

 Heattie's magnetic survey, expended large sums on 

 • iilrhrist's investio-ation of South -African marine biologv, 

 and joined with the other South African Governments in 

 defraying the heavy cost of Koch's inquiry into en=t roast 

 fever ; and the Zululand Government bore the w'hole of 



NO. 20Z6, VOL. 7SI 



the expense of Bruce 's nagana investigations. It cannot 

 be said, therefore, that the South African Governments 

 have been backward in this inatter. Much has been done, 

 no doubt, but more is wanted. 



It is not only in connection with the investigation of 

 diseases that research is required. It is, no doubt, the 

 practical value of that particular line of research which 

 has contributed in a large degree to the popularisation in 

 South -Africa of the advancement of science. But it is 

 the educative side of scientific research that will in the 

 end prove of the highest and most permanent value to 

 the community. That fact has been recognised by the 

 Transvaal Government, which has provided, in its new 

 experimental station, for the training of students, and a 

 small commencement has been made in the matter of 

 training research students in the laboratories of some 

 of the colleges in Cape Colony. 



NOTES. 



W'e notice with deep regret the announcement of the 

 death of Prof. Henri Bccquerel at the age of fifty-six. 



.\n international congress is to be held at the photo- 

 graphic exhibition which is being arranged to take place 

 at Kiev from December 15, 190S, to January 15, iqoq. 



Dr. Eric -A. Nouns, agricultural assistant to the Cape 

 Cn. virnment, has been appointed director of agriculture in 

 Rhodesia. 



Lieut. -Colonel Bourgeois, chief of the geodetic section 

 of the French .Army Geographical Service, has been 

 appointed professor of astronomy and geodesy in the Paris 

 Ecole polytechnique in succession to M. Poincar^, who has 

 resigned. 



The herbarium formed by Mr. Dulhie, and hitherto 

 quartered at Saharanpur, has been tiansferred to the 

 Imperial Forest Institute, Dehra Dun ; any correspondence 

 in connection with it should be addressed to the Imperial 

 forest botanist of that institute. 



Dr. W. H. WiLLcox, lecturer on public health, patho- 

 logical chemistry, and forensic medicine at St. Mary's 

 Hospital Medical School, has been appointed senior 

 scientific analyst to the Home Office in succession to the 

 late Sir Thomas Stevenson. 



The British committee of the first International Con- 

 gress of the Refrigerating Industries (Congrfes inter- 

 national du Froid), to be held in Paris on October 5-12, at 

 the Sorbonne, has issued a programme of British papers 

 and resolutions to be brought before the congress. The 

 various sections and the presidents are as follows : — 

 I. Low Temperatures and their General Effects, Prof. 

 d'-Arsonval; 11. Refrigerating -Appliances, Prof. H. L^aut^ ; 

 III. The Application of Refrigeration to Food, M. A. 

 Gautier ; IV. The Application of Refrigeration to other 

 Industries, M. E. Tisserand ; V. -Application of Refrigera- 

 tion in Commerce and Transport, M. Levasseur ; 

 \T. Legislation, M. J. Cruppi. Lectures will be given by 

 Prof, von Linde on refrigeration in dwelling places, and 

 Prof. d'-Arsonval on liquid air and very low temperatures. 

 Further particulars can be obtained from the secretary of 

 the British committee of the congress, 3 Oxford Court, 

 Cannon Street, London, E.C. 



A committee is being formed to erect a monument to the 

 late Prof. K. von Than, of the University of Vienna, 

 whose death was announced recently. The monument will 

 be set up at O-Beese, in Hungary, where Prof, von Than 



w.Ts born. 



