BRITISH VOTE

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 154, 28 December 1936, Page 9

BRITISH VOTE

FOR USE IN RESEARCH

WORK OF A NEW INSTITUTE

CHEMO-THERAPY

' Mr. Neville Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced on November 30 that the Government had agreed to give a grant of £30,000 a year towards the establishment of an institute of chemo-therapy '.says the "Daily Telegraph"). He was speaking at the annual banquet of the Eoyal Society. He said that the allocation was in response to a request from the Medical Research Council, and the Department of Industrial and Scientific Research, supported by his colleague, ' the Lord President of the, Council. This might indicate, he said, that it was only the graceful yielding of a movable object to the pressure of an irresistible force. ■ . . "But I can give good evidence, added Mr. Chamberlain, amid laughter, "to show that the object in question is not always movable, and that to move it there must be internal as well as external forces at work." In this institute of chemo-therapy, he believed they would be starting something of which it would be difficult to foresee all the possibilities, and which was fraught with benefit to the generations to come. "It is an unhappy but a necessary feature of the present situation that a large part of the Government's activities have to be devoted to the defence of the country. "That activity is reflected in the sums which are allocated to research for defence. This year we shall be spending £3,800,000, an increase of £1 A 300,000 on what we were spending two or three years ago. ; EFFECT ON CIVIL LIFE. "But I would like to assure you that a great part of this expenditure, though primarily made for the purpose of defence, w,ill nevertheless have its effect on many departments of civil life." Mr. Chamberlain said that, under the heading of defence was money spent on the Royal Observatory, Meteorological Office, and even such an item as the construction and manning of a non-. magnetic ship to observe magnetic vibration. (Cheers.) Grants to the universities and colleges in 1914 were less than £500,000, Today they amounted to £2,300,000. That was exclusive of the sum being allocated to the post-graduate medical school. Dealing with the general tendencies of science, Mr. Chamberlain said that it was a noteworthy feature of scientific investigation that the further they ad r vanced the greater was the extent of unexplored territory which lay before them. Speaking as a man in the street he felt that the greatest triumphs of science were those which took us out of the daily routine of life and administered that deep-seated longing of mankind for greater knowledge of the world and the universe. "The study of the infinitely great and the infinitely little has, in my own life-time, completely revolutionised many of the conceptions which seemed to be established truths when I'was young." "IMMENSE BENEFIT" . Sir William Bragg (the president) presided at the dinner, which was attended by members and guests distinguished in science, politics, law, art, and commerce. Colonel Lindbergh was among those present. Sir William expressed gratitude on behalf of science for the Government's grant of £30,000 for the institute of chemo-therapy. It was likely to result in an immense benefit, he said. It was remarkable that at the present time so much was being done to encourage research. There was Lord Nuffleld's £2,000,000, which they hoped would add.to the benefit of the medical research and the glories of Oxford. There was Lord Austin's gift of £250,000 to Cambridge, while they were that afternoon able to tell the Royal Society that, under the bequest of the late Mr. H. B. Gordon Warren, they had another £200,000 to administer for research for metallurgy, physics, and chemistry. Research was a new force in the world, and these gifts were indicative of the increasing reliance on research and the appeal to experiment for knowledge of Nature. Sir William described the appearance of the scientist, representing the movement towards humble experimental inquiry, as "one of the great events of history, resulting in a complete transformation of society." Using the term "scientist" to mean experimenter, it might be said that the "scientist" was now a figure on the stage, no longer a mere supernumerary. SCIENCE AND PROGRESS. This was especially a feature of modem times and had its origin in the seventeenth century with the foundation of the academies, the Royal Society, and the French, and German scientific societies. • The change that science had made in the world was made obvious by a comparison with the past. An interesting and convenient means of comparison was obtained from a study of the picture which Chaucer drew of English society in the "Canterbury Tales." His principal actors were almost identical with those of today in regard to their spheres of action, though not, of course, in their development. The printing press had not been invented, and experimental science had not been born. Sir William then proceeded to make a witty comparison between Chaucer's characters and their equivalents of the present day. He referred to Chaucer's "doctour of physike, who knew the cause of every maladie," and said, amid laughter, that today he would not be granted the modern diploma, because he "was grounded in astronomic." But the concourse between "doctour of physike" and the "scientist" had led to the marvellous advances of today, and yet more would be attempted. Lord Nufneld's gift was an earnest of that. 50,,, too, the "frankelein, reve, and miller" who represented the agricultural activities in Chaucer's company now leaned on the scientist to help in the protection and preservation of food. The shipman had become the master of the seas and the provider of modern transport, and the "wever, deyer," and others had added in conjunction with the scientist new materials and new methods. "The knight of Chaucer's company stood for the fighting forces. And here is a tragedy in the subsequent deflection of science to the uses of war." declared Sir William. "AGONY OF MISAPPLICATION." "It is the agony of the misapplication of science. It is sad to us that this great benefit should be turned aside and brought to the injury of fellow-men. "But what can we do but hope and do our best, because "we believe firmly that if we dp spread the knowledge .of -real- science^r-we: Shall find &6mej