CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 237 
the advancement of science than a discussion of the metric system, and I think 
it is well within the scope of the Conference. At the meeting of the French 
Association for the Advancement of Science one Conference was devoted almost 
entirely to it. Our Secretary was asked to make inquiries of the British 
Association as to its opinion on an alteration that was to be made in French 
units. I am very glad that we have followed it in our Conference. 
Mr. Witrrep Marx Wess then read his paper entitled 
The part to be played by Local Societies after the War in the Application 
of Science to the Needs of the Country. 
One of the penalties of making a suggestion nowadays is that one is 
often forthwith asked to carry it out, and if I had had the pleasure of hearing 
Mr. Hopkinson’s Address when the Corresponding Societies Committee asked 
me to introduce my present subject, I could perhaps have excused myself 
by claiming that my remarks would be unnecessary. 
The key-note, in fact, of what I had in mind to say was that a force must 
be generated in this country which will enable us to raise ourselves above 
party politics. There are many matters much less debatable than free trade, 
which our President mentioned, that could be settled much more satisfactorily 
on a business, common-sense, or scientific basis. 
Before going farther, however, in this direction, it may be well to con- 
sider the position of science. It has certainly played a big part in the war, 
and several times during this Conference the general feeling has been expressed 
that it will make itself felt in our everyday life in the near future to a much 
greater extent than it did in the recent past. That it ought to do so is 
certain. The seed no doubt is sown, but, as is the case with many a choice 
lant, fruit will not again be ripened to perfection unless conditions are 
favourable, time and care lavished upon the seedling, when it struggles forth 
from the soil, unless difficulties are surmounted and enemies warded off. 
In order fully to realise that even now an effort must be made, that old 
methods of advancing science must be improved and new ones devised, let 
us hark back for a moment to the state of affairs which prevailed before the 
war began, at the time, I may remind you, when the members of this Conference 
were the guests of France at Le Havre. 
What was the position of a scientific person? That is to say one who 
had some claim to be acquainted with things and facts, with causes, and effects ; 
not an individual trained to gauge his success by how easily he could for the 
moment put a complexion upon circumstances which would convince twelve 
men good and true and unpaid, or prevail upon the mobile-minded members 
of a constituency, who carry the elections, that he was the right person to go 
to Parliament and help to swell the majority that would bring emoluments, 
and ultimately honours, to his party without their being sought. 
The person we have in mind, if he had been asked five or six years ago 
what he thought would happen, and the pressing things that ought to be done, 
would have said, as many have done, that within the next ten years there 
would be a big war in Europe, and that England and Germany would be 
involved, and, apart from naval and military matters, it was the duty of those 
in authority to accumulate stores of food in this country, and to see that we 
produced as much as possible and bought as little as may be. He might also 
have added that our educational outlook should be altered, and if he had 
been tempted to touch on business he would have pointed out the folly of 
allowing Germans to undersell cur own people as clerks, and to learn all 
our customers’ names. . 
Mr. Whitaker said yesterday that we should always buy in the cheapest 
market. Doing this has been our curse. It is possible, I believe, sometimes 
even to get rid of a curse. te: ; 
What could such an individual as we have been considering do to bring 
about the improvements which he knew were wanted? Practically nothing 
directly. His vote was one amongst thousands. He had very little time to 
spare if he had to get his living from science, and perhaps even still less if 
