If it really is hubris “for a committee, however distinguished its membership, to pontificate on scientific matters,’’ as B. K Ridley asserts, then it is hubris with a long history. A cursory examination of the history of the Royal Society of London makes it clear how involved the society was throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries in offering advice on scientific matters to official commissions. The British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS), founded in 1831, frequently offered advice to the British Parliament in areas in which the Royal Society was thought to be failing. Such counsel is arguably an important element in building the general culture of society.1 

Would the 1860 clash over On the Origin of Species between Thomas Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce at a meeting of the BAAS have had anything like the resonance that it did if the role of the BAAS in scientific matters had not been generally recognized? The outcome, by showing clearly how imperfect Wilberforce’s understanding was, compromised the position of the established church in matters in which it had been regarded as authoritative.

1.
See, for example,
J.
Morrell
,
A.
Thackray
,
Gentlemen of Science: Early Years of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
,
Oxford U. Press
,
New York
(
1981
).