PREFACE 



DURING the last two years there has been an 

 increasing tendency to realize the pressing 

 urgency not only for extending and improving 

 scientific teaching but for a whole-hearted recogni- 

 tion, both by the individual and the State, of the 

 supreme importance of utilizing and developing in 

 the fullest measure the aptitude for scientific re- 

 search which is unquestionably a characteristic of 

 the British race. The time seemed propitious for 

 emphasizing a particular aspect of the general 

 question of the interdependence of many phases of 

 national prosperity and a just appreciation of the 

 value of pure science. "Original research," as the 

 late Prof. Meldola said, "is in itself the most powerful 

 weapon that has been or ever can be wielded by 

 mankind in struggling with the great problems 

 which nature offers on all sides for solution." 



It is widely believed that technical education 

 stands for efficiency and prosperity, but pure science 

 is regarded as something apart a purely academic 

 subject. It was with a view to demonstrate the 

 fallacy of this distinction that the present volume 

 was suggested. 'Science and the Nation' might 

 be taken as a text for many discourses on the 



