Epilogue: What Comes of Studying Vertebrates 1517 



and unintelligently, "letting 'Nature' take its course," as did the 

 Mesozoic reptiles, or whether it is now in command of sufficient in- 

 telligence to control, at least in some measure, its own destiny. Diseases 

 of the human body are to a large extent self-corrective. The body 

 reacts by producing resistant and combative agencies which overcome 

 the disease. Surgical operation is sometimes necessary. Similarly, 

 human society may find corrective measures for the maladies which 

 beset it. In acute cases, surgery may be necessary — removal of hope- 

 lessly vicious individuals or groups. 



Do the great masses of the world's present human population 

 possess the intelligence to distinguish between false prophets and truly 

 wise leaders, farsighted as to both the past and the future ? Are we now 

 wise enough and capable of sufficient cooperative effort to plan a 

 program of salutary racial hygiene which may be hoped to save our 

 race from the necessity of undergoing the major surgical operation of 

 "survival of the fittest"? A hopeful step toward an affirmative answer 

 to this question was taken on July 22, 1946, when representatives of 

 61 nations signed the constitution of a World Health Organization. 

 The constitution asserts that "Health is a state of complete physical, 

 mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease 

 or infirmity." The functions conceived for the Organization include the 

 following far-reaching projects: "to foster the ability to live har- 

 moniously in a changing total environment"; promotion of mental 

 hygiene, especially as to factors "affecting the harmony of human 

 relations"; and "education to prevent the insanity of another total 

 war and to destroy the basic causes of war." It must be remembered 

 that vertebrate history teaches that "survival of the fittest" does not 

 mean permanent survival of the biggest and most powerful. They that 

 survive and go progressively onward are the most adaptable — most 

 adaptable either by virtue of retention of some degree of structural 

 plasticity, or else by possession of a nervous mechanism giving the 

 animal superior capacity for effective and advantageous behavior. 



Beyond question, man has a long and hard way to go in working 

 out the salvation of his race. We of the present age have found that a 

 little intelligence is a dangerous possession. It has brought us much 

 knowledge. But, as a race, we need vastly more wisdom if we are to use 

 profitably the knowledge and power which a little intelligence has 

 given us. Judging by the past, man's intelligence will increase, but only 

 very slowly. Along with his intelligence, he possesses (in greater or 

 less degree, according to the individual) those mental states or attitudes 

 which we designate as "altruism," "tolerance," "mercy," "justice," 

 "sense of right and wrong." These are mental attributes which are, 

 at most, only very doubtfully recognizable in any animals other than 



