MARCH OF SCIENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20367, 23 September 1929, Page 13

MARCH OF SCIENCE.

BRITISH CONTRIBUTIONS.

WORK OF ANTICIPATORS.

DEMONSTRATORS WHO FOLLOW.

Professor J. Arthur Thomson, of Aberdeen University, gave an address on "British Contributions to Science" to members of the City of London Vacation Course in Education recently.

Professor Thomson said that it was a, difficult task to appreciate the contributions made by difforont countries to science. There wero anticipators and demonstrators to distinguish. Harvey's d* monstration of the circulation of tho blood was anticipated by others, but. it was ho who was tho convincing demonstrator. ',l'he biggest men wero tho makers of new knowledge—the discoverers of new worlds; but there had been others who had mado advances of great moment to mankind.

Momentous advances might bo due not to tho discovery of anything in the form of new knowledge, but to tho invention of somo new device, such as the telescope and tho compound microscope. In physicol science especially they had to take account of tho discoverers of technical methods, notably mathematical, by which subsequent concrete progress had been mado possible. Everyone was familiar with tho name of tho inventor Edison, yet how few even in America knew the fundamental work of Elihu Gibbs—ono of tho discoverers on whose shoulders the inventors sat. They all admired tho inventive genius of Marconi, but, as he would hp the first to allow, his achievements rested on foundations firmly laid by men like Fitzgerald, Clerk Maxwell and Hertz. Advancos in science had often depended on tho unsensational step of a new contact between different sciences.

British Characteristics.

Asking what Britain had done for scionce, the speaker said they should give up any attempt to pit one country against another as" regards scientific achiovemonts. Science was not national, but universal. But he thought it possible to distinguish characteristic features in the science of different countries. Britain had contributed its full share to the short roll of geniuses. Among these were Nowton, Faraday, George Green and Clerk Maxwell. More numerous were tho pioneers like William Gilbert, Stephen Hales, Graham and Joule. Some had in their Columbus voyages discovered to mankind new worlds—Darwin, Newton, the early microscopists and Dalton with his atoms.

Tho science of Britain had been characterised by a flair for big ideas. As an illustration tho lecturer compared Gilbert White, the English country parson, and tho naturalist Henri Fabre. Fabre's powers of peering into the intimate life of creatures were far ahead of Gilbert White's, but Gilbert White discerned a web of inter-relations which permeated the whole of working nature. In Fabre's work he (Professor Thomson) knew no big idea to bo compared for a moment with that. This flair for big ideas might also bo illustrated by tho uniformitariau geology of Hutton and Lyell, »nd tho study of hormones by Bayliss and Starling. A feature which seemod to bo characteristic of British science wa3 ft power of dogged persistence. Darwin used to say, "It's dogged that does it." While there wa3 an element of fallacy hero, there was no doubt of the value of scientific patienco and persistence as in William Smith's mapping of tho geological strata of England or Darwin's study of earth-worms. As comparod with the French, British scientific investigators had rarely paid much attention to style or had much in tho way of pootic imagination or philosophy. On the other hand they had seldom been so attontiva as the German characteristically was to the work of other people. We had never gone in for the elaborate bibliographies which marked Gorman science.

The Roll of Philosophers.

Whilo generalising had been characteristic of British science there had been few philosophers, Spencer standing as a giant in solitary grandeur and not without his feet of clay. A large number of British men of science had thought much of the relief of man's estate. More than any other man in a lifetime Newton changed tho whole aspect of human life. In the big towns one could hardly turn without touching some dovice emanating from Faraday, and Kelvin was pre-eminent in inventivoness in putting things to practical use.

Somewhat striking in the history of British science had been tho role of amateurs, taking amateur in the meaning of non-profossional inquirer, often educated on quite different lines. Gilbert White was a country parson, Hugh Miller a stonemason, and Cavendish a rich aristocrat. Whilo there had been few philosophers among British men of science it had been characteristic of them as a whole to exhibit humility and reverence, rising often to religious awe. They had illustrated what Coleridge had so well expressed when ho said that all knowledge began and ended with wonder —that tho first wonder was the child of ignorance and that tho second wonder was tho parent of adoration.