Stakman • Scientific and Social Development of the World 135 



freedom of worship "in order that Rouen, France, required the destruc- 



whatsoever divinity and celestial power tion of barberr\- bushes in order to con- 



mav exist may be propitious to us and trol stem rust of wheat. Connecticut, 



to all who live under our government." Massachusetts, and Rhode Island en- 



Thus were all gods nationalized and acted barberry eradication laws, some 



put into the service of the state to- very strict, between 1726 and 1766; and 



gether. shortly after 1800 several German states 



That plant diseases continued to took similar action, 



vex and puzzle peoples after the fall of The pioneer barbcrr\'-eradication 



Rome is certain, although records are laws represent a triumph of common 



fragmentary' and much is left to be sense over intellectual orthodoxy and 



conjectured. The so-called Dark Ages authoritarianism. Practical agricultur- 



were not very articulate about the ef- ists were concerned about rust because 



feet of plant diseases on social develop- it menaced their daily bread, and it was 



ment. It seems improbable, however, their common experience that the men- 



that diseases declined with the decline ace was greatest near barberr\' bushes, 



of Rome, or that they had a private Many scientists, however, maintained 



renaissance when the minds of men that it was not true, because they could 



again awakened. The foul fiend Flib- not understand how it could be true, 



bertigibbit probably was not a sudden The farmers who lived with wheat did 



invention, but rather an evolutionary not know why barberry was baneful 



product in the minds of men to whom but they did know how baneful the bar- 



the cause of misfortunes was so obscure berry was. And so, unencumbered by 



as to force resort to mystical explana- preconceptions, they passed laws to 



tion. Shakespeare probably was merely eradicate the bane. How simple, and 



an accurate social reporter when he how significant! 



wrote in King Lear, about 1600, Thus was born the concept of pub- 

 lic health for plants. But not without 



This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet; pain. For the first law was enacted a 



he begins at curfew and walks till the first hundred years before Fontana and 



cock; he gives the web and the pin, -pargioni announced their conviction 



squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip; i.i,„f'^„^. ,^„. „ minute narasitic nlant 



mildews the white wheat, and hurts the ,. • , i i • -i i i J 



poor creature of earth. disseminated by invisible see^s and 



two hundred years before the I ulasnes 



In many ancient societies the en- showed that fungi could be pleomor- 



forcement of public health measures P^ic and DeBary proved that stem rust 



was entrusted to the priestly class; ac- was heteroecious. During two centuries, 



cordingly many peoples were accus- then, mandator^' laws were passed 



tomed to this type of regulation. But about something that was known but 



when positive secular laws were first "^^ understood. 



enacted about plant diseases, they rep- Wheat rust was a pioneer in impel- 



resented a change in mode of thought ^ng society to organize measures to 



and considerable social development, help safeguard its food supplies by laws. 



Some good thoughts about plant dis- The laws stimulated experimentation 



eases were incorporated into laws long and research, which finally justified the 



before the nature of disease was really pragmatic actions of society and helped 



understood. revolutionize man's outlook. But rust 



The first known attempt to control was not the only social reformer. It 



a plant disease by legal measures was must share honors, and dishonors with 



made about 300 years ago, when the potato murrain. 



