NOTES 321 



punishment is certain and merited. How many great men 

 have Spain and Portugal produced since the time of Cervantes 

 and Camoens ? The reaction is silent but inevitable. It is 

 more profitable to be a rogue than a genius. Now in the 

 present case, tropical medicine is only a department of science, 

 and perhaps not the most important or worst paid one, but 

 Science Progress of January 1914 gave some indication as 

 to how it has been treated. The most scathing comment 

 on the whole business may be found in a sentence of the 

 Huxley Lecture recently delivered by Sir Ronald Ross, in 

 which he says that in his opinion scarcely one-tenth of the 

 work which might have been done to save human health and 

 life in the tropics by means of recent researches has actually 

 been performed. The same stupidity which governs our attitude 

 towards the workers will certainly prevent us from utilising 

 their work for our own benefit. That is the punishment which 

 fate keeps in store for the instincts which the tradesman admires 

 in himself but which the rest of the world condemns. And after 

 all, the spirit of a nation is that of its individuals. 



It may be answered that this moment when our soldiers are 

 dying for their country is not the one when men of science 

 should clamour for compensation. But it is precisely the 

 moment. There is a close parallel between the cases of our 

 sons who are toiling in the trenches of Flanders and our 

 workers who are toiling in the trenches of science. The soldier 

 is not allowed in this country to have a vote (disgracefully 

 enough), and the men of science are too few to make their 

 votes effective. So also with the other workers at great things. 

 Therefore the politicians neglect them all. For years they have 

 maintained an army too small for the needs of the country — 

 though warned over and over again by the best military experts. 

 Now, as a punishment, they are obliged to pour out the nation's 

 money like water in order to retrieve their error, which, as 

 many think, has been largely to blame for the war. In times 

 of peace they gave their soldiers almost nothing compared with 

 the wealth which any cheat may obtain in a few years by his 

 mean efforts. Now, when war has broken out, they are obliged 

 at the last moment to place themselves in the hands of a soldier 

 and to shriek, clamour, and pay for the recruits which should 

 have been obtained and trained long ago. 



A nation must adopt one of two ideals — either to be a great 



