Scientific Centenaries in 1934

Abstract

THE records of the past year contain accounts of many commemorations of the centenaries of notable men such as Wren, Pepys, Priestley and Trevithick. In some instances the celebrations included the arrangement of interesting exhibitions, the delivery of lectures and the erection of memorials, but in every case they reminded the world of its benefactors and brought to light new information regarding the lives and work of those commemorated. If the sole value of the practice of commemorating centenaries were that it reminded us of great achievements it would be justified, for most men are like Emerson who said: “I cannot even hear of personal vigour of any kind, great power of performance, without fresh resolution.” Then, too, we are all debtors of the dead, appropriating from their labours what is pure gram, rejecting what has proved to be chaff and utilising their discoveries and inventions for furthering our immediate ends.