61-2 KEPOKTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



Moreover, it must be rememtered that the Intelligent amateur no longer 

 necessarily belongs to a class outside scientific circles as he did formerly, but he ia 

 frequently quite learned in one branch of science though he may be the merest 

 amateur in another. And yet when he travels outside his own subject he is in danger 

 of being placed in a position somewhat similar to that of his predecessor, the amateur 

 of sixty years ago. For him the introductory text-book is too laborious and in a sense 

 too elementary ; the treatise is too technical and is expressed in a language which he 

 cannot understand. On the other hand, the magazine or newspaper article he dare 

 not trust ; it is true that excellent articles upon scientific subjects do from time to 

 time appear in the popular magazines, but they are rare : moreover the magazine 

 article comes to-day and is gone to-morrow, and cannot always be secured when 

 wanted. I do not forget that several good scientific journals exist which appeal 

 to a wider public than the specialist ; ' Science Progress ' in particular, happily 

 revived during the last few years, aims at a very high standard of information, and 

 with conspicuous success. But even here the articles are too often expressed iu 

 language whicli cannot be understood by the ordinary reader. 



So far I have referred only to the condition of scientific liternture in relation 

 to the amateur. But in this Association and at this conference we are concerned 

 rather with the spoken than with the written word ; I have only deferred the 

 consideration of scientific meetings in order to draw a parallel. 



For if we turn to Scientidc Societies, is not what I have said about scientific 

 books still more true about the societies P The greater scientific societies are 

 becoming every day more highly specialised both in their publications and in 

 their membership ; there are very few which occupy themselves with more than 

 one branch of science ; and even those few which profess to cover a wider field 

 break up into sections, each of which is far too sharply divided from the others. 



If it be difficult for the intelligent amateur to extract information from the 

 scientific text-book or treatise, how much more difficult is it for him to learn any- 

 thing from the proceedings and meetings of these societies ? If the language of 

 even the text-books is so thicklj^ beset with technical expressions that it is hard 

 to imderstand, how much more unintelligible is the specialist jargon of a society 

 in which it often happens that a paper, though read in a meeting of specialists, 

 can only be fully followed by two or three of those present ? 



Tlea^e understand that I am not protesting against scientific terminology in 

 itself, Oi' in its right place ; but I do feel that it is discouraging to the earnest 

 inquirer after knowledge to find himself confronted by books which he cannot 

 understand, or condemned to attend meetings where the language spoken is a 

 strange and uncouth tongue which he has no time to acquire. 



The result is that our intelligent amateur, whetber he be a scientific man 

 or no, is placed very much in the position where he was sixty years ago ; and 

 I believe that now, as then, he may find salvation in the local scientific society, 

 if it really attempts to meet his wants. 



Cannot the Local Societies, in addition to their ordinary work, make a special 

 eflbrt to satisfy the educational needs of the great many intelligent people who 

 have not been trained in, or have not had access to, laboratories, museums, and 

 seientiSc libraries, or whose opportunities have not brouglit them into contact 

 with field-work and the interests and occupations of naturalists, and who desire 

 to know more of science, and perhaps to become themselves workers? 



It is true that for their working-purposes, especially if they are naturalist or 

 field clubs, it is advisable for them to break up into sections, one perhaps occupied 

 with the local fauna, another with the local flora, and so on ; but if only they 

 could succeed in keeping their members together upon some common ground in 

 which they are united by a general interest in science, and could offer some educa- 

 tional help to meoibers to whom science is chiefly a hobby and a relaxation, they 

 would be doing work which cannot be performed by any other sort of society or 

 by the publication of any ordinary text-book or treatise. In the present state of 

 scientific knowledge and specialisation nothing can be more useful than to bring 

 together persons interested in difterent subjects and to enable them to understand 

 one another. Very much of the estrangement which now exists between different 



