Notes

Abstract

IN proposing the toast of “The Royal Society” at the anniversary dinner on Saturday last, Lord Dunedin referred to the popularisation of science as one of the functions of a society which exists for the promotion of natural knowledge. This remark provides the subject of a letter by an anonymous correspondent in Tuesday's Times. The writer urges that the neglect of science in this country is largely due to the indifference shown by scientific men to the intellectual interests of the average reader. Few men of science make any attempt to describe their investigations in language which can be understood by men of culture without special scientific knowledge, and it is scarcely too much to say that most investigators are so closely absorbed in their particular researches that whether the world in general knows anything of the results or not is “regarded as no concern of theirs. This spirit, and the obscure and diffuse manner in which scientific investigations are. often described are to be deplored. Lord Rayleigh, in the presidential address which appears elsewhere in this issue, directs attention to the undigested material often presented as papers to scientific societies; and it seems as if the zeal for research is rarely accompanied by the aspiration for simplicity of expression. Prof. M. E. Sadler suggests in Wednesday's Times that the neglect of the teaching of the mother tongue in our schools provides, a reason “why so many Englishmen of learning and high scientific attainment are unable, to express themselves in a lucid and stimulating way.” It may be pointed out, however, that though rhetoric receives more attention in the United States than it does in this country, the style of scientific papers and other works from America is not superiors to that of our own scientific literature. But whatever the explanation may be, there can be only one opinion as to the advantage of increasing interest in scientific work by making the results as widely known as possible.