The British Association at Bournemouth . Section D. Zoology: Opening Address

ONE of the results of the great war now happily at an end has been its effect upon science. On the one hand it has checked the progress of scientific invests gation; it has done much to destroy international cooperation and sympathy; it has removed from our ranks, temporarily or permanently, many admirable workers. On the other hand it has acted as a great stimulus in many departments of scientific inquiry, and it has given the general public an interest in many scientific questions which have hitherto met with little recognition or encouragement from the people at large. It was perhaps inevitable, but at the same time, as I venture to think, rather to be deplored, that that interest has tended to concentrate itself upon applied more than upon abstract science; that it has been concerned chiefly with the employment of natural knowledge in devising and perfecting new methods of destruction. Terrible as is the power which the present-day engines of warfare have attained, it may be reasonable to hope that some compensation for the mischief and suffering which they have caused may eventually be found in peaceful directions; that the submarine, the aircraft, and even the high explosive may cease to be a terror to civilisation, and in spite of their past history may after all become agents in the advancement of the general welfare: