4o6 



NA TURE 



[September 30, 1909 



on suitable hardening temperatures for steel of the differ- 

 ence between An and Aci would still be left not fully 

 -explained. The remarkable irreversibility in certain nickel- 

 iron alloys of the A2 point, the only one reversible in 

 ordinary mild steel, demands the consideration of both 

 <:urves. 



Mr. W. H. A. Robertson's paper, on plant used in the 

 manufacture of tubes, is of a practical and descriptive 

 nature. 



The last paper of all, the relation between science and 

 practice and its bearing on the utility of the Institute of 

 Metals, by Sir Gerard A. Muntz, Bart., treats of a subject 

 probably the most important of the series for a first 

 volume. It is a short paper written by invitation of the 

 president, but it gives formal expression to a general feel- 

 ing, much in evidence in personal conversation with all 

 grades of workers connected with the metal trades, that 

 information is needed in a form not too academic, expressed 

 in language that the intelligent who are not mere theo- 

 retical specialists can understand. When the practical 

 man, who must produce results, compares the air of 

 omniscience assumed by some purely theoretical metal- 

 lurgists with the smallness of the help they seem able to 

 give him in his work, he is apt to be discouraged and 

 to have thoughts about metallurgical science that he ought 

 not to be led to think. The science underlying metallurgy 

 is not yet sufficiently understood to do entirely without 

 the extremely useful empirical conclusions of intelligent 

 practical men, and hence elaborate generalisations, often 

 on inadequate bases (the " raw science " of Mr. Rosen- 

 hain), can generally only be suggestive of methods of 

 attack on matters of difficulty in works, and one must take 

 all available help from practice to command success. Long 

 ■personal experience in connection with delightful and some- 

 what successful investigations of this nature, made in 

 conjunction with those actually engaged in works, serves 

 ■only continually to strengthen this view. The Institute 

 of Metals, to be worthy of its name, must welcome any 

 paper on purely scientific original work connected with 

 non-ferrous metals if convinced that the results are trust- 

 worthy, however remote their practical utility may seem ; 

 "but it must also consider the immediate needs of the great 

 majority of its members by encouraging papers of a 

 practical scientific nature, expressed in language that may 

 be understood by the most intelligent members who are 

 actually engaged in works practice. 



A. McWiLLIAM. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT UTNNITEG. 

 SECTION K. 



Opening Address by Lieut.-Colonel David Prain, 

 C.I.E., LL.D., F.R.S., President of the Section. 



Sutor nc supra crepidam judicaret, probably an old say- 

 ing when Pliny wrote, is still a safe guide. The limita- 

 tions of life and of knowledge are different, and human 

 effort is thereby so conditioned that progress depends on 

 specialisation in study. Specialisation lessens the tempta- 

 tion to forget this caution ; but the force of the proverb 

 is not weakened. It also conveys a behest, and compliance 

 with this behest helps to counteract the narrowed outlook 

 which specialisation sometimes encourages. 



Those whose studies are confined to some limited field 

 often welcome a sketch of the aims and methods of work 

 with which they are not familiar. Such a sketch may be 

 held to have served its purpose if the subject discussed, 

 and its relationship to cognate studies, be rendered in- 

 telligible. 



No apology, therefore, is made for the subject now 

 taken up, even if it be sometimes hinted that this subject 

 —Systematic Botany — is inimical to originalitv, the anti- 

 thesis of scientific, and outside the limits of botany proper. 

 These views depend on half-truths and arbitrary connota- 

 tions. They do not affect the fact that the primary pur- 

 pose of systematic study is to advance natural knowledge. 

 The systematic worker, in furthering this object, does net 

 NO. 1 >8,^, VOL. St] 



halt to consider whether his work be applied rather than 

 original, technical rather than scientific. 



As a matter of history, the scope of systematic study 

 practically coincides with what botany once implied ; as a 

 matter of fact, it corresponds to what zoology implies 

 now. The accident that man, on his physical side, is 

 like the beasts that perish has led to the recognition of 

 animal physiology and anatomy as independent sciences. 

 Owing to the absence of any such fortuitous circumstance 

 vegetable anatomy and physiology remain under the 

 ancestral roof. These off-shoots of botany are as vigorous 

 as their zoological counterparts. They may be entitled to 

 think that systematic methods are old-fashioned, and it 

 may be desirable that they should set up separate establish- 

 ments or form alliances with the corresponding off-shoots 

 of zoology. But nothing in all this justifies the eviction 

 of systematic botany from the family home. 



The statement that systematic methods are old-fashioned 

 n;ay be accepted without conceding that these methods are 

 out of date. Systematic work, while sharing in thei 

 general advance in knowledge, has been able, amid far- 1 

 reaching changes, to maintain continuity of method in ■ 

 the pursuit of its double purpose. This has been a benefit 

 to botany as a whole when crucial discoveries or illumin- 

 ating theories have, in other fields, led to a re-orientation 

 of view requiring the use of fresh tablets for the record 

 of new results. 



Disintegration and rc-adjustment due to altered outlook 

 are familiar processes. Histology, parting company with 

 organography to serve physiology, is now an independent 

 study, one of the branches of which occasionally declineSI 

 to accept any doctrine unconfirmed by cytological methods. 

 The study of problems relating to nutrition and reproduc- 

 tion has been considered the especial task of physiology. 

 Now, the chemist at times claims the problems of nutrition 

 as part of his field, and we look for advances in our 

 knowledge of reproductive problems to the cytologist and 

 the student of genetics. These instances are adduced from 

 without because relative exemption from distintegration 

 is a distinctive feature of systematic study. The two- 

 sided task of the systematist is to provide a census of the 

 known forms of plant life and to explain the relationships 

 of these forms to each other. The work on one side is 

 mainly descriptive, on the other mainly taxonomic, but 

 the two are so interdependent, and their operations so 

 intimately blended, that it is difficult to treat them apart. 

 Re-orientation in botanical study has led to seismic dis- 

 turbances in the taxonomic field, but the materials sup- 

 plied by descriptive work have remained unaffected, and 

 therefore have been ready for use in the repair or re- 

 construction of shattered "systems." 



The exemption from radical change in method, which 

 marks systematic work, is due to those characteristics that 

 expose it to the charges of discouraging originality and of 

 calling only for technical skill. It also largely explains 

 why systematic study, especially on the descriptive side, 

 is not attractive to minds disposed towards experimental 

 inquiry. The labour involved is as exacting, accurate 

 record and balanced judgment are as necessary, in descrip- 

 tive as in experimental research. " A skill that is not to 

 be acquired by random study at spare moments " is as 

 essential in descriptive as in other work, while the relief 

 that variation in method affords is precluded. Increased 

 experience, here as elsewhere, leads to more satisfactory 

 results, but without, in this case, mitigating the toil of 

 securing them. The testing of theories, often an inspiring 

 task in experimental research, in the descriptive field re- 

 tards progress. But if in descriptive work imagination and 

 the spirit of adventure are undesirable, these qualities are 

 not inhibited by systematic study as a whole. Imagina- 

 tion is legitimate and useful in the taxonomic field, and in 

 another line of activity — the acquisition of the material on 

 which descriptive work is based — the spirit of adventure 

 is essential to success. 



The untravelled descriptive worker is not without con- 

 solations. His work is as necessary to botany as that of 

 the cartographer to geography, or the grammarian to 

 literature. His results are means to the ends that others 

 have in view. If these results often appeal to coming 

 rather than to contemporary workers, the descriptive writer 

 is at least largely spared the doubtful benefit of immediate 



