8 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



best that we could have ofiered. It may indeed be that that very South 

 Africanisation of our South African Science of which I have been speaking 

 is but another instance of the Holistic principle at work. As I speak of 

 the South African outlook in Science, I cannot but refer you with that 

 deep appreciation which I know we all feel, to the masterly address which 

 four years ago General Smuts delivered from this chair, when he demon- 

 strated in so compelling a manner (I quote his own description of the task 

 he set himself) ' that there is something valuable and fruitful for Science 

 in the South African point of view, that our particular angle of vision 

 supphes a real vantage point of attack on some of the great problems 

 of Science ; and that, so far from the South African view-point being 

 parochial in Science, it may prove helpful and fruitful in many ways to 

 workers in the fields of scientific research and investigation.' 



Science in South Africa, then, has made itself truly South African, and 

 in doing so it has established itself in the admiration and affection of the 

 people of this land. As a nation we are grateful to our scientists for their 

 contributions to our intellectual and material progress. The liberal 

 policy of the state in supporting scientific effort we heartily endorse, the 

 increase in the mental stature and the prestige of the nation which Science 

 brings to us we sincerely welcome. We are proud of our South African 

 Science, not least because we know that we can regard it as distinctively 

 ours. But while our Science has been South Africanised, we can rejoice 

 that there is nothing narrow about its South Africanism. Were it other- 

 wise, it would have been false to the spirit of Science. In applying itself 

 to the problems of South Africa, it has succeeded in attracting the atten- 

 tion of the scientific wo;:ld to South Africa. In that address to which I 

 have already referred, General Smuts emphasised the fact that recent 

 events had drawn the eyes of the world to this land of ours as a rich field 

 for scientific investigation. ' The scope for scientific work,' he said, ' in 

 this department of knowledge ' (he was referring more especially to Human 

 Palaeontology, but his words are of wider applicability) ' is therefore 

 immense ; the ground lies literally cumbered with the possibilities of 

 great discoveries. . . . Science has in South Africa a splendid field of 

 labour ; other nations may well envy us the rich ores of this great " scien- 

 tific divide " which is our heritage.' Those words are well worth remember- 

 ing. We speak sometimes of our wealth in South Africa — mineral wealth, 

 agricultural wealth, potential industrial wealth^but great also is our 

 scientific wealth, and great is the debt we owe to South African Science 

 for what it has done to reveal that wealth to ourselves and to the world. 



