6 7 o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



fill many people with a kind of delirious enthusiasm. Every one 

 has heard of the dear old lady who found a blessedness in the 

 word "Mesopotamia." Britannia is now also an old lady who 

 seems to find a similar blessedness in the word "free." She 

 never considers the exact meaning of the word. Freedom is not 

 invariably a good thing, and, as Milton suggested, it may easily 

 degenerate into licence. People who use catchwords, that is, 

 who subordinate the truth to what they imagine are " principles " 

 and " ideals," not only frequently suffer much themselves but 

 also cause great suffering to others. Britain has been the 

 paradise of such people, and it is largely owing to them that 

 the long-designed and carefully-prepared brigandage of the 

 German nation was able to find its opportunity for robbery 

 under arms. Mr. Sexton's conversion is gratifying because it 

 shows that we still have enough sense left to think a little it 

 driven to it. It is to be hoped that the war will have one result 

 (not frequently mentioned in the papers) — that it will convert 

 Britain from being a nation of faddists to being one of honest 

 and scientific thinkers. 



Our Unspeakable Cranks 



British cranks still continue to point the argument which we 

 stated in our article on " Irrationalism " in the number for last 

 July; and they have recently gone even beyond themselves. 

 We have seldom seen quite such an evil production as an 

 advertisement which appeared a little while ago in the columns 

 of Punch — for the publication of which, however, we are glad to 

 say, Mr. Punch afterwards excused himself. One would think 

 that even our cranks would scarcely dare to hamper our armies 

 in the field by endeavouring to discredit important sanitary 

 measures in the field, such as anti-typhoid inoculation has 

 proved itself to be. But persons who do not possess sufficient 

 capacity for reasoning to apprehend the value of scientific 

 evidence will scarcely possess enough sense to know when 

 they are offending against the common laws of patriotism, not 

 to say of propriety. We are glad to see, therefore, that the 

 Medical Committee of the British Science Guild has issued a 

 leaflet traversing the absurd statements of the British Union 

 for Abolition of Vivisection on this subject. The Committee 

 appeals to our press not to publish the vapourings of these 

 people in future, because, as it points out, "those who are 



