An Introduction to a Biology 



it. Huxley strongly insisted on the fact that the fruits, 

 useful to mankind, of the tree of natural knowledge fell un- 

 sought for and unexpected on the back of the head of some 

 obscure worker under its shade, and never to him who 

 worked there with outstretched palm. Dr. Reid says, 

 p. 331 : 



*' Hitherto the nature of their training has tended to 

 render medical men excessively conservative. Neverthe- 

 less, they have already assimilated and put to magnificent 

 practical use one of the two great scientific achievements 

 of the age — Pasteur's discovery of the microbic origin of 

 disease. The other great achievement, Darwin's discovery 

 of the adaptation of species to the environment through 

 natural selection, has hardly been assimilated, and cer- 

 tainly put to no practical use as yet. Both these discoveries 

 should have been made by medical men." 



The fact that they were not is an illustration of the 

 truth of Huxley's words. 



Let it be emphasised again that we do not hold that 

 the gradual desertion of biologists from the ranks of the 

 pure to those of the applied is other than of the greatest 

 service to mankind. But if this desertion means that the 

 opinion will grow that the natural goal of the young biologist 

 is to obtain a position in applied biology, it is a bad thing 

 for science. The utilitarianism which may lead to the 

 extinction of the pure biologist is to be deplored. If we are 

 going to be utilitarians let us at least be good ones, and let 

 us recognise the demonstrable fact that the only way in 

 which the knowledge and consequent control of nature can 

 be acquired is by encouraging the existence of the type of 

 man who works at his subject for its own sake. Let us have 

 less of the talk about the profound significance of such and 

 such a branch of investigation to the sociologist and the 

 statesman, and more of the frame of mind which finds ex- 

 pression in Bateson's words: — "We are asked sometimes. 

 Is this new knowledge any use ? That is a question with 



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