THE INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY 15 



of age among the population— a decrease in the percentage of 

 children and an increase in the numbers of the older— that 

 must have a profound effect upon the organization of so- 

 ciety. The problems of India that arise from its political 

 situation, grave as those are, are by no means the most im- 

 portant for the future of the country. As A. V. Hill has 

 pointed out in his report on his visit to India on behalf of 

 the Royal Society, the great problem in India is the ex- 

 traordinarily rapid increase in the population owing to the 

 improvement in medical and sanitary conditions, far behind 

 those of the western world as they still are. The society of 

 India, with its many complications of custom and religion, 

 was adapted to a large birth rate and an appalling death rate. 

 Even a sliofht reduction in the death rate has been sufficient 

 to upset the balance. 



The growth of science, which made it possible to conceive 

 the idea of progress and which is the source of many im- 

 provements in the conditions of human life, has become so 

 rapid that the changes that it produces threaten the very 

 foundations of society. Today we have to face the necessity 

 for a complete re-orientation of our attitude tow^ard social 

 conditions. We can no longer expect the organization of 

 society to remain stable. We must expect it to be changing 

 continually, and we must plan our political and economic 

 control not to perpetuate any existing state of affairs but to 

 meet the changes that will come in such a way that they will 

 give us the maximum benefit and the minimum distress. 



In this book we shall discuss the structure of society from 

 the historical point of view, especially its relation to the 

 development of scientific knowledge and the methods that 

 have been and can be used for the production of scientific 

 knowledge. 



While the relation between the progress of scientific dis- 

 covery and the structure of society is of the utmost interest 

 and importance to those who desire to understand it or, still 

 more, to control the changes that are occurring, there is a 

 cleavage betw^een those who follow the discipline of history 



