OCTOBEE 17, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



373 



determined by legal enactment. But these, 

 in fact, and as they were presented, have only 

 a remote connection with science. 



There is a double reason for the incon- 

 spicuous appearance of the scientific side at 

 meetings of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. The results of re- 

 search, if they are to be useful to other 

 workers, or even if they are to increase the 

 scientific reputation of their authors, must 

 receive quick and effective publication. The 

 organ of the British Association is a bulky 

 annual volume, costly to buy, slow to appear, 

 and cumbrous on private shelves. Prudent 

 investigators jirefer other means of making 

 known their work, and hence offer to the asso- 

 ciation very little that is new. The tradi- 

 tional policy of successive councils, or more 

 probably of the general officers who are the 

 effective managers of the association, has 

 been to cater for numbers rather than for 

 quality. Hence the tendency in favor of the 

 popular. Hence the continuous increases in 

 the numbers of the sections and sub-sections, 

 the wish to provide for any subject that can 

 be alleged to have a connection with science. 

 The theory no doubt is that these outer circles 

 should be infiltrated with the scientific spirit. 

 The practical result is that many papers are 

 accepted by the British Association which are 

 better suited, were they certain of acceptance, 

 to specialized congresses, or to local debating 

 societies. An excuse that is offered for this 

 policy is that large attendances mean large 

 receipts and the possibility of making large 

 grants for more research. A sum of over 

 £1,300, it is proudly stated, is to be provided 

 for research by reason of the success of the 

 Bournemouth meeting. Twelve sectional com- 

 mittees put in their claims on it, and a general 

 committee, supposed to contain, and actually 

 containing, some of the best brains in Great 

 Britain, had to meet in solemn conclave to 

 allot this vast sum. 



The British Association does some good 

 work. It could do much more. It serves as 

 a meeting ground of men engaged in different 

 branches of science. Were they not swamped 

 by the camp-followers and separated by sub- 

 division, they could really come together for 



the double purpose of social contact and of 

 discussion of the technical methods on which 

 the progress of science depends. It is the 

 great annual onportuuity for the publicity of 

 scientific work. The more necessary that it 

 should avoid the popular " copy " which has 

 always a ready access to the lay organs of 

 publication. The more vital that it should 

 present the higiiest aims and needs of science. 

 What is most vital is that it should insist on 

 the advancement of science simply as knowl- 

 edge, and not merely as a means to practical 

 utilities. Certainly in the recesses of some 

 of the sectional meetings, and in a few of the 

 formal addresses, there was insistence on pure 

 as opposed to applied research. But the small 

 voice of the true scientific spirit was drowned 

 by the resoimding advertisement of the prac- 

 tical utilities that had come from science. 

 Moreover, it frequently became shrill with 

 personal protest — protest from scientific men 

 who thought tl'.at they had been neglected or 

 controlled by " practical " men. We do not 

 dispute that the protests were sometimes just, 

 and that it may have been useful to make 

 them. But the nation, and perhaps even the 

 government, which is a very different thing, 

 will listen more readily to science at its best. 

 And the best voice of science is neither pro- 

 test, promise, nor boasting, but the proclama- 

 tion of the intrinsic worth of knowledge 

 spoken with faith and imagination. — The 

 London Times. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Vn manuscrit inedit de Dolomieu sur la 

 mineralogie du Dauphine. Grenoble, im- 

 primerie A21ier Freres, 1919, 50 pp. 8vo. 

 We are indebted to Professor Alfred 

 Lacroix, Secretaire Perpetuel of the Academic 

 des Sciences, for the publication of an in- 

 edited manuscript of Deodat de Dolomieu. 

 This treats of the mineralogy of the old 

 province of Dauphine, and embodies notes 

 sent to Dolomieu by the city librarian of 

 Grenoble, Du Cros. As a little of the nomen- 

 clature has become obsolete. Professor Lacroix 

 has here and there supplied (in parentheses) 

 the modern equivalents, and in a very brief 



