Culture club
Sir: Thirty-one years ago, I was mildly sur- prised to see my name on the front page of The Spectator, alongside the heavyweights of the scientific and literary Establishment. We had all written to your journal, spurred on by the intemperate attack by Dr Leavis on C. P. Snow's Rede Lecture of 1959.
Maybe the reprinting of Snow's 'The Two Cultures' (Books, 2 October), reviewed in Your columns by Nigel Spivey, and John Patten's article (`Must think harder') in the same issue, will provoke another deluge of letters, redefining 'culture' and 'science'.
Snow was absolutely right when he point- ed out the communication barrier between his two cultures. Where do we go from here? Perhaps the story of an episode Which took place 50 years ago at Cam- bridge will provide your readers with a clue. I was doing an experiment in physiology, and my frog muscle behaved in a peculiar way. 1 called for help from the demonstra- tor, Dr Rushton, and he asked me a signifi- cant question: 'Are you going to be a scien- tist or a medic?' A scientist,' I replied. 'In that case,' said Rushton, 'I will tell you nothing,' and I had to solve the problem on my own.
Oliver C. A. Scott
31 Kensington Square, London W8
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