IJr'i . TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION A. 



The business men will not save us ; as has been said with much truth, the products 

 of modern business methods are to a great extent slums and niMlionaires. It 

 lies to a great extent with scientific men themselves to see that reform is 

 forthcoming ; and more power to the Guild of Science and to any other agency 

 which can help to bring about this much-needed result. 



While scientifically educated men, whether doing special work or acting as 

 officers, have been held of far slighter account in the services than they ought 

 to have been, for physicists as such there has been little or no recognition, 

 except, I believe, when they happened to be ranked as research chemists ! How 

 did this happen ?_ Wny. the various trades asserted themselves, and the result 

 was a sufficiently long list of ' reserved occupations,' a list remarkable both for 

 its inclusions and for its exclusions. There was, for example, a class of 'opti- 

 cians.' many of whom have no knowledge of optics worth mentioning. They are 

 merely traders. One of these, for example, the proprietor of a business, made a 

 plaintive appeal to myself as to how he could determine the magnifying powers 

 of certain field-glasses which he wished the Ministry of Munitions to purchase. 

 But for a young scientific man, even if he were an eminent authority oni 

 theoretical and practical optics, but who was not in the trade, there was 

 no p'lace. 



Research chemists received their recognition in consequence of the existence 

 of the Institute of Chemistry. I am extremely glad to find that something is 

 now being done to found an Institute of Physics. I hope this movement will be 

 successful, and that it will be thoroughly practical and eflficient. I hope its 

 President and Council, its Members and its Associates, will be zealous for 

 science, and especially for physics. It ought to be a thoroughly hard-working 

 body, without any frills destitute of work value. Of honorary Members or 

 honorary Fellows there should be none. There are enough of limelight spots for 

 those who deserve and like that kind of illumination. 



I am glad that something is being done at last for the organisation of 

 scientific research. This movement has started well in several, if .not in all, 

 respects, and I wish it all success. There are, however, one or two dangers 

 to be avoided, and I am not sure — I may be miich too timid and suspicious — 

 that they are fully recognised, and that the result will not be too much of a 

 bureaucracy. Somehow or other I am reminded by the papers I have seen of the 

 remark of a poor man who, asking charity of someone in Glasgow, was referred 

 to the Charity Organisation Society of that city. 'No. thank you,' he said; 

 'there is a good dea'l more organisation than charity about that institution.' 

 So I hope that in the movement on foot the organisation will not be more 

 prominent than the science, and the organisers than the scientific workers. 



There is to my mind too much centralisation aimed at. Everything is to 

 be done from London : a body sitting there is to decide the subjects of research 

 and to allocate the grants. "There may be a good deal to be said for that in the 

 case of funds obtained in London. But apparently already existing local incen- 

 tives to research work are to be transferred to London. The Carnegie Trust 

 for the Universities of Scotland, soon after its work began, inaugurated a scheme 

 for research work in connection with these Universities. The beneficiaries of 

 the Trust, it is well known, must be students of Scottish nationality. The 

 action of the Trust has been most excellent, and much good work has been 

 done. Now, so far as chemistry and nhys'cs are concerned, it has been pro- 

 posed, if not decided, to hand over to the organisation in London the making of 

 the awards, a process of centralisation that will probably not end with these 

 subjects. I venture to protest against any such proceeding. The more incen- 

 tives and endowments of research that exist and are administered in the pro- 

 vinces the better. Moreover, this is a benefaction to Scottish students which 

 ought not to be withdrawn and merged in any provision made for the whole 

 country, and administered in London by a bureau which may know little ot 

 the Scottish Universities or of Scottish students. The bureau might, with 

 equal justice or injustice, be given command of the special-research scholarships 

 of all the Universities both in England and Scotland, and administer theni in 

 the name of the fetish of unification of effort. I do not know, but can imagine, 

 what Oxford and Cambridge and Manchester and Liverpool would say to that. 

 But even Scotland, where of course we knoAv little or nothing about education 



