388 



SCIENCE. 



[N.S. VOL.XVIII. No. 456. 



jects of science and a removal of any disad- 

 vantages of a public kind which impede its 

 progress. ' ' 



In the main, my predecessors in this 

 chair, to which you have done me the honor 

 to call me, have dealt, and with great bene- 

 fit to science, with the objects first named. 



But at a critical time like the present I 

 find it imperative to depart from the 

 course so generally followed by my pre- 

 decessors and to deal with the last object 

 named, for unless by some means or other 

 we 'obtain a more general attention to the 

 objects of science and a removal of any dis- 

 advantages of a public kind which impede 

 its progress, ' we shall suffer in competition 

 with other communities in which science is 

 more generally utilized for the purposes of 

 the national life. 



THE STRUGGLE POK EXISTENCE IN MODERN 

 COMMUNITIES. 



Some years ago, in discussing the rela- 

 tions of scientific instruction to our indus- 

 tries, Huxley pointed out that we were 

 in presence of a new 'struggle for exist- 

 ence,' a struggle which, once commenced 

 must go on until only the fittest survives. 



It is a struggle between organized species 

 — nations— not between individuals or any 

 class of individuals. It is, moreover, a 

 struggle in which science and brains take 

 the place of swords and sinews, on which 

 depended the result of those conflicts which, 

 up to the present, have determined the his- 

 tory and fate of nations. The school, the 

 university, the laboratory and the work- 

 shop are the battlefields of this new war- 

 fare. 



But it is evident that if this, or any- 

 thing like it, be true, our industries can 

 not be involved alone; the scientific spirit, 

 brain-power, must not be limited to the 

 workshop if other nations utilize it in all 

 branches of their administration and exec- 

 utive. 



It is a question of an important change 

 of front. It is a question of finding a new 

 basis of stability for the Empire in face 

 of new conditions. I am certain that those 

 familiar with the present states of things 

 Avill acknowledge that the Prince of Wales's 

 call, 'Wake up,' applies quite as much to 

 the members of the Government as it does 

 to the leaders of industry. 



What is wanted is a complete organiza- 

 tion of the resources of the nation, so as- to 

 enable it best to face all the new problems 

 which the progi-ess of science, combined 

 with the ebb and flow of population and 

 other factors in international competition, 

 are ever bringing before us. Every Min- 

 ister, every public department, is involved, 

 and this being so, it is the duty of the whole 

 nation— King, Lords, and Commons— to do 

 what is necessary to place our scientific in- 

 stitutions on a proper footing in order to 

 enable us to 'face the music' whatever the 

 future may bring. The idea that science is 

 useful only to our industries comes from 

 want of thoiight. If anyone is under the 

 impr£ssion that Britain is only suffering 

 at present from the want of the scientific 

 spirit among our industrial classes, and that 

 those employed in the State service possess 

 adequate brain-power and grip of the con- 

 ditions of the modern world into which sci- 

 ence so largely enters, let him read the re- 

 port of the Royal Commission on the War 

 in South Africa. There he will see how 

 the whole 'system' employed was, in Sir 

 Henry Brackenbury 's words applied to a 

 part of it, 'unsuited to the requirements of 

 an Army which is maintained to enable us 

 to make war.' Let him read also, in the 

 address of the president of the Society of 

 Chemical Industry what drastic steps had 

 to be taken by Chambers of Commerce and 

 ' a quarter of a million of working men ' to 

 get the Patent Law Amendment Act into 

 proper shape, in spite of all the advisers 

 and officials of the Board of Trade. Very 



