THE CONQUEST OF DISEASE 



must be sacrificed. To preserve a nation men 

 are sent into battle and sacrificed upon the 

 altar of this principle. If our country were in- 

 vaded by foreign foes we should go to war to 

 kill them and to have many of our own killed, 

 but it would all be for what we thought the 

 general good. The individual afflicted with 

 contagious disease must be deprived of his 

 liberty for the good of the many. Majorities 

 rule. Power dominates. Among animals this 

 is the law : the strong prey upon the weak, the 

 many upon the few, regardless of the question 

 of benefiting either. But the inexorable laws 

 of nature have made it salutary; and those 

 which perish do so for the benefit of the strong 

 and the more important. 



Ethical Man should be actuated by higher motives, 



motives. and should not destroy an animal unless its 



destruction is for his highest benefit. He 

 should think of pain in two aspects- -pain in- 

 flicted and pain prevented. These two should 

 be weighed, one against the other ; and the bal- 

 ance should always turn towards the latter. 

 Of all the enormous destruction of animals 

 which is now in progress on the face of the 

 earth I know of none which is giving greater 

 returns to humanity, in contributing to man's 



