NA TORE: 
433 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1885 
10, 
OUR PRESENT NEEDS 
F it be fair to forecast the success of a meeting of the 
British Association by the quality of the addresses 
delivered by the various presidents, then we may predict 
that the meeting of this year at Aberdeen, which began 
yesterday, will stand out among its fellows. We think it 
would be hard to find any prior occasion on which such a 
high standard of excellence had been reached all round. 
The growing use as well as the growing feeling for the 
need of scientific methods comes out in a most unmis- 
takable way, while there is no fear that either hearers or 
readers will be lulled into a Sleepy Hollow of satisfaction 
or a rest-and-be-thankful feeling. For that much remains 
to be done even in the way of initial organisation both 
of teaching and working, is frankly and fearlessly acknow- 
ledged by several of the speakers. 
These present needs may well occupy our attention, 
and we may begin by those pointed out by the President 
of the Association himself, who speaks both as a man of 
Science and a politician. No one knows better than 
“Sir Lyon Playfair how Science can aid the body 
politic, or knows better how each party when in office 
neglects or uses this powerful engine for the nation’s good. 
He begins by quoting these noble words from the address 
of the President at the Aberdeen Meeting in 1859—the 
lamented Prince Consort :—“ We may be justified in 
hoping . . . that the Legislature and the State will more 
and more recognise the claims of Science to their atten- 
tion, so that it may no longer require the begging box, 
but speak to the State like a favoured child to its parent, 
sure of his paternal solicitude for its welfare ; that the 
State will recognise in Science one of its elements of 
strength and prosperity, to foster which the clearest 
dictates of self-interest demand.” 
One can get no better idea of the Philistine condition 
of the Government and of the House of Commons in 
‘matters of science than from the fact that much of what 
follows in the President’s Address has not been said in the 
House itself instead of at Aberdeen. The real reason 
perhaps is to be gathered from a remark made by Prof. 
Chrystal in his address in Section A :— 
“We all have a great respect for the integrity of our 
British legislators, whatever doubts may haunt us occa- 
sionally as to their capacity in practical affairs. The 
ignorance of many of them regarding some of the most 
elementary facts that bear on every-day life is very sur- 
prising. Scientifically speaking, uneducated themselves, 
they seem to think that they will catch the echo of a fact 
or the solution of an arithmetical problem by putting 
their ears to the sounding-shell of uneducated public 
opinion. When I observe the process which many such 
people employ for arriving at what they consider truth, I 
often think of a story I once heard of an eccentric Ger- 
man student of chemistry. This gentleman was idle, 
but, like all his nation, systematic. When he had a pre- 
cipitate to weigh, instead of resorting to his balance, he 
would go the round of the laboratory, hold up the test-tube 
before each of his fellow-students in turn, and ask him 
VOL, XXxXII.—No. 828 
to guess the weight. He set down all the replies, took 
the average, and entered the result in his analysis.” 
Now if this view of our legislators is shared by 
men of such acumen as Sir Lyon Playfair and others in 
the House of Commons more or less connected with 
science, we can well understand their silence in the 
modern council of the nation which so little resembles 
the Witanagemote of former times. 
In his pleading for more State recognition of science 
the President points out the present activity of Germany 
and France, and especially of the United States: 
““.. . Both France and Germany make energetic efforts 
to advance Science with the aid of their national re- 
sources. More remarkable is it to see a young nation 
like the United States reserving 150,000,000 acres of 
national lands for the promotion of scientific education. 
In some respects this young country is in advance of all 
European nations in joining Science to its administrative 
offices. Its scientific publications, like the great paleeon- 
tological work embodying the researches of Prof. Marsh 
and his associates in the Geological Survey, are an 
example to other Governments. The Minister of Agri- 
culture is surrounded with a staff of botanists and 
chemists. The Home Secretary is aided by a special 
Scientific Commission to investigate the habits, migra- 
tions, and food of fishes, and the latter has at its disposal 
two specially constructed steamers of large tonnage. 
The United States and Great Britain promote fisheries 
on distinct systems. In this country we are perpetually 
issuing expensive Commissions to visit the coasts in order 
to ascertain the experiences of fishermen. I have acted 
as Chairman of one of these Royal Commissions, and 
found that the fishermen, having only a knowledge 
of a small area, gave the most contradictory and 
unsatisfactory evidence. In America the questions 
are put to Nature, and not to fishermen. Exact and 
searching investigations are made into the life-history of 
the fishes, into the temperature of the sea in which they 
live and spawn, into the nature of their food, and into the 
habits of their natural enemies. For this purpose the 
Government give the cooperation of the Navy, and 
provide the Commission with a special corps of skilled 
naturalists, some of whom go out with the steamships, 
and others work in the biological laboratories at Wood’s 
Holl, Massachusetts, or at Washington. .. . The practical 
results flowing from these scientific investigations have 
been important. The inland waters and rivers have been 
stocked with fish of the best and most suitable kinds. 
Even the great ocean which washes the coasts of the 
United States is beginning to be affected by the knowledge 
thus acquired, and a sensible result is already produced 
upon the most important of its fisheries. The United 
Kingdom largely depends upon its fisheries, but as yet 
our own Government have scarcely realised the value of 
such scientific investigations as those pursued with success 
by the United States.” 
He quotes with approval a passage from Washington’s 
farewell to his countrymen: “ Promote as an object of 
primary importance institutions for the general diffusion 
of knowledge.. In proportion as the structure of a 
Government gives force to public opinion it is essential 
that public opinion should be enlightened.” He next points 
U 
