364 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 612. 



natural knowledge still needs to be brought 

 home to the 'man in the street.' And here 

 I would venture to indicate my personal 

 belief in the necessity of more free com- 

 munication between the laboratory and the 

 market-place. It is possible that the lan- 

 guage of science is becoming too technical, 

 and that the difficulties with which scien- 

 tific inquirers have been faced in past times 

 have tended to habits of exclusiveness. 

 For example, complaints are frequent that 

 our manufacturers are less alert in grasp- 

 ing the practical applications of scientific 

 discovery than their competitors in Ger- 

 many and the United States. I confess, 

 however, that it seems to me possible that 

 the fault is not altogether on the side of 

 the manufacturers. We want missionaries 

 to preach the doctrine that one of the great- 

 est of national assets is scientific discovery. 

 If we can convince the men of business of 

 this country that there are few more profit- 

 able investments than the encouragement 

 of research, our difficulties in this matter 

 will be at an end. 



It is my lot to serve on the education 

 committees of three county councils, and I 

 have been much struck by the readiness of 

 the members of those bodies to extend such 

 encouragement whenever it has been pos- 

 sible to convince them that the results may 

 conduce to the prosperity, the comfort and 

 the safety of the community. 



It has also been my privilege to address 

 meetings of the men who work in the coal- 

 fields of South Wales. I have attempted 

 to direct their attention to the advantages 

 which they have derived from the labors of 

 those who have endeavored to probe the 

 secrets of nature in the laboratory; I have 

 tried to show how discoveries based on the 

 researches of Humphry Davy, Faraday, 

 Joule, for example, have not only dimin- 

 ished the dangers to which miners are ex- 

 posed, but have also, by increasing the de- 



mands upon our stores of energy, given 

 employment to thousands of their fellow- 

 workers. 



My experiences lead me to the belief that 

 these men are ready to support the action 

 of their representatives in extending sup- 

 port and encouragement to all efforts to 

 assist the advance of scientific discovery. 



It is possible that in dwelling on this 

 matter I am trespassing on your forbear- 

 ance, but I can not resist this opportunity 

 of pleading for the extension of your sym- 

 pathies beyond the walls of the laboratory. 

 The old toast, 'Here's to science pure and 

 undefiled; may it never do a ha'porth of 

 good to anybody,' may possibly be an ex- 

 cellent one in the laboratory; for, so far 

 as I know, no great scientific principle has 

 ever been established by labors prompted 

 solely by desire for financial gain. Never- 

 theless, if we wish for the support of our 

 fellow-countrymen, that toast is not one for 

 public dinners. There is no scientific so- 

 ciety which is brought into such close con- 

 tact with the public as is the British Asso- 

 ciation, and affiliated with that association 

 are some scores of local scientific societies, 

 containing many thousands of enthusiastic 

 observers and inquirers. If this great or- 

 ganization were seriously to take up the 

 task of bringing home to the minds of the 

 people of this kingdom the enormous value 

 of the results of scientific inquiry, I believe 

 it might be possible to change the indiffer- 

 ence and apathy of our public bodies into 

 active interest and encouragement. If each 

 affiliated society would institute a series of 

 public non-technical lectures, of such a na- 

 ture as to bring home to the minds of the 

 hearers some comprehension of the results 

 of the work of Faraday, of Wheatstone, of 

 Pasteur, of Maxwell, of Lister and of 

 Kelvin, the change in the public attitude 

 would be real, evident and fruitful. 



In conclusion, one is tempted to seek for 



