268 Lord Rayleigh — Acquisition and Advancement of Knowledge. 



Unfortunately, I have been unable so far to investigate the beds 

 immediately below the mottled ones at Silverdale to see if thej^ agree 

 with those in Derbyshire. Necessarily I am unable to give the actual 

 thickness of the mottled beds. "With reference to the contained 

 foraminifera of these beds, I am hoping to make further investigations 

 on them before publishing any note on the same. Some of the genera 

 represented are Nodosaria sp. {raiiicida ?), Endotlnjra spp. (abundant 

 forms, bowmani?, ammonoides'}), Textularia sp., Trochammina sp. 



The President of the Royal Society on the Acquisition and 

 Advancement of Knowledge. 



rpHE following excerpts are from the Address delivered by Lord 

 JL Rayleigh at the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society on 

 November 30th, 1907 (published in Proc. Roy. Soc, Series B, 

 vol. Ixxx, pp. 77, 78, 1908). 



How to keep pace ^vith the Progress of Science. 

 "Enough has probably been said to illustrate my contention that 

 much loss has ensued from ignorance and neglect of work already 

 done. But is there any remedy ? I think there ought to be. In 

 all principal countries of the world we have now a body of men pro- 

 fessionally connected with science in its various departments. No 

 doubt the attention of many of these is so engrossed by teaching that 

 it would be hard to expect much more from them, though we must 

 remember that teaching itself takes on a new life when touched with 

 the spirit of original enquiry. But in the older universities, at any 

 rate, the advancement of science is one of the first duties of Professors. 

 Actual additions to knowledge occupy here the first place. But there 

 must be many who, from advancing years or for other reasons, find 

 themselves unable to do much more work of this kind. It is these 

 I would exhort that they may fulfil their function in another way. 

 If each man would mark out for himself a field — it need not be more 

 than a small one — and make it his business to be thoroughlj- conversant 

 with all things new and old that fall within it, the danger of which 

 I have spoken would be largely obviated. A short paper, a letter to 

 a scientific newspaper, or even conversation with friends and pupils, 

 would rescue from oblivion writings that had been temporarily over- 

 looked, thei'eby advancing knowledge generally and sometimes saving 

 from discouragement an unknown worker capable of further achieve- 

 ments. Another service such experts might render would be to furnish 

 advice to younger men desirous of pursuing their special subject." 



The Preparation of Scientific Papers. 



' ' Another remedy for the confusion into which scientific literature 

 is liable to fall may lie in the direction of restricting the amount of 

 ■unessential detail that is sometimes prevalent in the publication of 

 scientific results. In comparing the outputs of the present time, and 

 of, say, thirtj' years ago, the most striking feature that appears is 

 doubtless the increase of bulk in recent years, coming especially from 



