SCIENCE AND THE COMMUNITY 511 



In any event, Science cannot cease to follow the exhortation of Carlyle 

 to ' produce in God's name,' and it would be bad for humanity generally, 

 if it tried. It is not scientific to deal with the offshoots of evil. The 

 scientific method goes to their roots. Let us face our present conditions 

 in the historical and biological spirit, and much progress in the science 

 and art of applying scientific knowledge, in the scientific spirit, to society 

 and government, can be recorded. 



It must be evident to everyone who has thought about the social conse- 

 quences of advances in scientific research that they call for a reinvigoration 

 of social science. The experiences of later years points out the urgent 

 desirability for close co-operation between the scientist, the industrialist, 

 and the man of affairs, to enrich the lives of human beings, to help such 

 changes as will diminish the disruptive forces in society, and to promote 

 social solidarity which lies at the root of human progress and happiness. 

 And this can be done. It is, indeed, the next step, made not only possible 

 but inevitable by the great contribution to scientific progress made in 

 recent years by scientific research. 



NOTE. 



Mr. George Radford Mather, a life member of the British Association, 

 to whose generosity the Association owes the foundation of the Radford 

 Mather Lecture, is a retired engineer, now living at Wellingborough. In 

 1909, fifty years after his apprenticeship, Mr. Mather retired from active 

 business, and since then he has devoted much time and energy to the study 

 of those minimal surface relations exhibited, for example, in the spherical 

 shape assumed by a small raindrop. It was during a correspondence on 

 such matters that attention was directed to the increasing interest shown by 

 the Association in the social implications of advances in science, a subject 

 about which Mr. Mather is seriously concerned. Deeming that this aspect 

 of the Association's activities is one to be encouraged, Mr. Mather has pro- 

 vided funds wherewith to endow a lecture, to be called the Radford Mather 

 Lecture, to be delivered triennially in London or the provinces, and generally 

 to be concerned with the effect of advances in science or communal well- 

 being. 



It is a matter for regret rather than surprise that the venerable founder 

 of the Lecture — he was born at Irchester so long ago as 1841 — was unable 

 to be present in person and to hear the late Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's 

 thought-provoking address. Fortunately his son, Mr. C. J. Mather, was 

 able to attend and to convey to Mr. Radford Mather the thanks and good 

 wishes of the Association. 



