TOPICS OF THE TIMES

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4811, 20 February 1936, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Scientific Research. “To-day everyone realises the practical advantages that have come from scientific discovery. But many fail to see the intimate and necessary connection between pure and .applied science. The manufacturer who regards the professor of chemistry as a remote or needless luxury is not extinct. We can agree with the philosophers that science never leads us to ultimate causes. At most, by research and argument, the man of science discovers sequences of change from which other sequences can be inferred. We can say that the sequences are due to laws of Nature, for under, artificial conditions they resemble the consequences of invariable laws to which Nature is subject. I would emphasise that the supply of benefits that science brings to the community cannot be expected to continue unless pure research flourishes. The man of science in a university laboratory pursuing knowledge for its own sake is'essential to progress. I would even go so far as to contend that even the pure mathematician has his uses. Just as a community must be well educated if its standards of life are to be raised, so it must maintain men who will by research increase knowledge. Universities and scientific societies are essentials of civilisation.” - Dr. Barnes, Bishop of Birmingham.

Obesity. “By obesity is meant an excessive accumulation of depot fat in the storage areas of the body,” said Dr. G. C. Lambie, in a recent address on “Obesity.” “What constitutes exjcess will depend upon the point of view. The physician is called upon to regard obesity as a disfigurement, as a disease, or a 'sign.’ The aesthetic criteria of obesity may- be determined by individual taste, or even by the dictates of fashion, but there comes a point at which the deposition of fat impairs functional activity and gives rise to symptoms, so that a person may be said to be too fat if the adiposity results in distress or discomfort of any kind, impairs the sense of well-being, or diminishes the capacity to enjoy life. The ‘correct’ weight for an individual should in some degree be related to the physical type to which he belongs. If this were more widely realised, many people would avoid ill health and privation through illadvised attempts to make their bodily configuration conform to some general standard, whether derived from ideal weight formulae or prescribed by fashion.”