FERRIS: THE CONTRIBUTION OF NATURAL HISTORY TO HUMAN PROGRESS 83 



traffic, designing- Iiighwa.ys to minimize accidents, formulating and administering 

 laws which will aid in doing so — these arc not problems for the doctor at all. 



So with these diseases of parasitic origin or parasitic transmission. Until the 

 parasite is present in the body of man, it is beyond the range of the physician's 

 activities and even beyond the range of his proper interest except in so far as a 

 knowledge of this sort broadens the scope of his understanding. How to control 

 these parasites is properly no part of his concern, for it embodies problems that 

 are not within the range of a hospital-trained medical man. These problems are 

 actually those of ecology, of an understanding of the insect vectors and parasites 

 themselves, their ways of life and their relations to other organisms. 



This idea has finally begun to penetrate even into the minds of doctors, and 

 there is a growing body of men whose training fits them especially to deal with 

 these organisms. They have no collective or corporate name at the present time, 

 but one may safely predict that such a name will finally appear. They are 

 scarcely to be called sanitarians. They are not strictly parasitologists. They are 

 not necessarily medical entomologists. Just what are they ? That remains to be 

 determined, but in time some term will inevitably appear that properly indicates 

 the range of their activity. They are actually naturalists. Personally, I am 

 inclined to the opinion that the term "environmental medicine" could in some 

 way be employed for their field. 



But, regardless of what they may eventually be called, it is clear enough 

 that their activities have a large part to play in the future story of human prog- 

 ress. The activities in which they engage have already almost eliminated from 

 some parts of the world diseases which once made those areas relatively unhabit- 

 able by man — witness especially yellow fever — and they promise to do the same 

 for even greater areas. In fact, it seems reasonable to predict that the control of 

 parasites and their vectors will eventually lead to making habitable and useful 

 to mankind those great areas of the tropics which now maintain but a scanty 

 population and contribute but little to the commerce of the world. Whether or 

 not this is actually a consummation devoutly to be hoped for is another matter. 



Systematics 



Another child of the first generation derived from the Great Mother, natural 

 history, is biological systematics, which, as I have pointed out, at one time con- 

 stituted a very large part of natural history. It was the question "How many and 

 how varied are the kinds of organisms ?" with which the naturalist was concerned. 

 Now, however, it has become merely a section — sometimes a strongly fenced-off 

 section — of the activities which we have inherited. It has a rather peculiar his- 

 tory. Originally, in a rapidly expanding world, it amounted to but little more 

 than an expression of curiosity aroused in large part by the great numbers of 

 previously unheard-of kinds of plants and animals that were discovered and it 

 became to a large extent merely an attempt to give these plants and animals 

 names and to arrange them into some sort of system by which knowledge con- 

 cerning them could be handled. From this there grew what became at times 

 almost a cult, embodying the idea that it was the sole purpose of the systematist 

 or taxonomist to find and name as many as possible of these animals and plants 

 and to fit them into the system. In fact, it became somewhat the idea — although 

 perhaps never clearly expressed — that this goal extended to naming all the ani- 



