CLAIMS OF SCIENCE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1024, 13 January 1911, Page 10

CLAIMS OF SCIENCE.

A POWERFUL FACTOR IN SOCIAL ..-REFORM.,-. . Speakmg at the anniversary dinner of the Royal Society at tho 'Hotel Metropole, Lord Robson said tho condition of public life just now was not altogether favourable to the propagation of tho scientific spirit, with its calm temper and patient methods. We. hadgoing on a carnival of controversy of the good old pro-scientific type, carried on moro according; to the-analogies of war than logic. It was at such a time, however, that the still, small voice of the Royal Society should be heard, because while politicians were contending and putting forth thoir remedies for' the industrial and social conditions which they -were striving to maintain or alter, these conditions' were more dependent for their improvement upon men of science than upon ■men of government. (Cheers.) Science was quietl.v doing moro than even the inost ; noisy'rhetorician. Scientists did not quarrel enough, said his Lordship, amid laughter, .about thoir work. If they could only. find occasions for . a little quarrelling, their work would bo much better known and much better understood; but they must quarrel in public. Tho unselfishness of scientific'work-was its most'treasured possession. (Cheers.)