14 FEBRUARY 1936, Page 3

Neglected Science Today we are always calling ourselves, or being

called, scientific, but Professor- Julian Huxley in a lecture on Tuesday raised serious doubts whether we deserve the name. Just as we have bread and burn it, so we have knowledge and power and suppress them. Professor Huxley gave some glaring examples- 9f psychological knowledge we will not use, of advances in .agriculture we will not exploit. On the other hand, to .armaments and war we apply every resource of science in its most destructive form. Even when modern productivity is diverted to its proper ends, as in the supply of milk to poor children, it is not, as Professor Huxley pointed out, for reasons of health and hygiene ; it is, under pressure from the Ministry of Agriculture, to provide a market for producers. Whether science is exploited or not is indeed decided, not by the possible profit to the consumer, but by the possible loss or gain to the producer. It would be quite possible, said Professor Huxley, at relatively small expense to " add two inches to the stature, pounds to the weight, and an enormous amount to disease resistance." But unless it pays it will not, be done. Such a neglect of the interests of individual and consumer in favour of the producer is indeed one of the great follies of the day.