Abstract
MR. T. SHEPPARD, director of the Municipal Museums, Hull, contributes to the October issue of the Naturalist some notes on points of interest con nected with the recent meeting of the British Associa tion at Aberdeen. In a paragraph on “Lectures and Lecturers” he says, “We have complained over and over again of the apparent inability of many of the lecturers to give audible and understandable dis course”; and he refers to the plea made at the meeting by Mr. H. T. Tizard, and on many other occasions, for increased care by scientific workers in speech and writing. Unfortunately, some authors of papers seem to be unaware of the most elementary principles of speaking to an audience. If they read their papers, they speak to the desk with their heads down, and if they use blackboards or diagrams they turn their backs to the assembly. While research is being carried on into the conditions of good acoustics in buildings, and architects are criticised for not taking these conditions into consideration, many scientific men would apparently not trouble to make themselves heard in the most perfectly designed building; and even when a microphone is provided they turn away from it. In a communication to a scientific society, inability to speak with ease is perhaps pardonable when an investigator is presenting the results of original research to other workers in the same field. The British Association, however, “seeks to promote general interest in science and its applications”. No technical qualification is required for membership, and every year the public is invited to join and attend the meeting. There are thus particular reasons why speakers in the section rooms or elsewhere should remember the character of the assembly they are addressing. Whatever the nature of the audience, however, if an author is not prepared to take the trouble to make himself audible and intelligible, he should not be permitted to irritate his hearers and his paper should be ‘taken as read’.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scientific Meetings and the Public. Nature 134, 601 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134601a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134601a0