S02 RADFORD MATHER LECTURE 



and treatment in the scientific spirit, in order to prevent more serious 

 results — serious illness and death in an individual, revolution and dis- 

 ruption in the community itself. 



By the scientific method it might often be possible to prevent even the 

 pain and unrest. This optimism in progress, however, assumes that an 

 awakened interest in the work of the experimental scientist will incline 

 the public to follow, in its own special concerns, the methods and spirit 

 of the scientist himself. I make no plea for the scientist as statesman. 

 He will not be likely to be any better than Plato's philosopher. The plea 

 I make is for a practical Democracy, but if Democracy is to triumph in 

 the attack now being made upon it, it must have a method, and I believe 

 that the methods of the scientific worker and the way he sets about his 

 work will clarify and steady the popular mind not only to complain elo- 

 quently but to conclude wisely. I think that that conclusion stands out 

 boldly and baldly in the mind of everybody who has been following scien- 

 tific work and scientific discovery during the last ten or fifteen years. 



In these days, when science is renewing its claims to be regarded as an 

 essential part of cultural education and to rank in value with the human- 

 ities for that purpose, it must be able to show that its pursuit is not only 

 to discover facts but to influence values of life as well, and that it can not 

 only put power into men's hands, but quicken the human qualities of 

 mind which take care that that power is used for human well-being and 

 progress, as I am afraid it is too often not regarded at this moment. The 

 scientist as citizen should take a lively concern in the way his discoveries 

 are used. Professor Lancelot Hogben contributed a lively thought- 

 provoking paper to the Blackpool meeting in which he emphasised this 

 dictum : ' The cultural claims of science rest on the social fact that the 

 use and misuse of science immediately affects the everyday life of every 

 citizen in a modern community.' 



If at the end of a generation the most advertised contribution that 

 scientific activity, particularly in physics and engineering, has made to 

 the life of the community, is that it has produced power of destruction 

 which can be used to appal the most indifferent to human suffering and 

 injustice, the labours of the scientist of our time run the risk of being 

 permanently deplored. This, I am glad to say, is now being widely 

 recognised by scientists themselves. On the other hand, as I am urging, 

 the part which our present scientific research can play in social well-being 

 and solidarity depends upon an instructed popular view of the value and 

 significance of those researches and their uses as a whole. 



Let me, therefore, enforce what I have said by reminding you of some 

 subjects and directions in which scientific investigation has been active, 

 in recent years, to prove that it has not only contributed to our knowledge, 

 but has been important in helping us to understand how to begin to settle 

 the problems with which every progressive community has to deal to-day. 



Let me refer first of all to a question, the most fundamental of our 

 concerns as a community and as individuals, which, after years of patient 

 research and experimental work, is occupying a more and more important 

 place in the public mind. The vital problem of nourishment and public 

 health has been quickened with new energy by the work of the scientific 

 investigators, and I am glad to say that the attack upon it is being prepared 



