The First 

 RADFORD MATHER LECTURE 



BY 



The Rt. Hon. J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, P.C, M.P., F.R.S. 



ON 



SCIENCE AND THE COMMUNITY. 



(Delivered at the Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, London, 

 on October 22, 1937) 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen — ^May I open by associating 

 myself, if you will kindly allow me, with the words spoken by the President 

 regarding Lord Rutherford.^ I knew him for a good many years as a 

 personal friend, genial, happy, inspiring as a great teacher and as a very 

 fine, high spirited public servant. Whenever I had to ask him as an officer 

 of State for his help his feet ran swiftly to accede to my request. 



I must begin by expressing two things that are upmost in my mind 

 at this moment — the thanks we all owe to Mr. Radford Mather, the 

 generous founder of these lectures, and the pleasure I feel at having been 

 asked by the Council of the British Association to deliver the first of them. 

 Mr. Radford Mather has been impressed by the importance of the work 

 of the scientist in the everyday life of our people, especially at this moment ; 

 and after a long life enlivened by scientific and social interest, he feels 

 keenly that the recognition of that work is not only owing to the scientific 

 worker himself, but will be helpful in inducing the public to use the 

 advantages which the scientist has put at its disposal. 



The history of scientific discovery and the application of scientific 

 knowledge to human activities in every field reads like a romance, and 

 I can imagine no more interesting career for anyone whose tastes lie in 

 that direction. The interest and importance of the scientific career, 

 however, are not confined to the laboratory or the classroom, but should 

 be regarded as a major, if indeed not the major, creative influence on this 

 generation, which is undergoing such great changes of some of which we 

 are not aware. In national economic we-11-being, especially in making 

 high standards of living possible, in the evolution of both the powers 

 and the forms of national institutions, in the efforts to create and secure 

 social harmony and co-operation, the scientific method, if followed, 



^ The President, Prof. Sir Edward Poulton, F.R.S., was in the Chair. Before 

 speaking of the inauguration of these lectures, referring to their founder, Mr. G. 

 Radford Mather (see note at end), and introducing the speaker, he had paid 

 tribute to the Rt. Hon. Lord Rutherford, F.R.S., past president of the Association, 

 who died on October 19. 



