24 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



ing. Science follows, but the pace is laboured, and falling behind 

 she is neglected. Often she has to follow along the wrong path for 

 some distance before beckoning development back to the direct 

 way. Roads and rails have been built before there were accurate 

 maps on which to mark them; crops have been introduced and 

 grown under all kinds of conditions, regardless of the suitability of 

 the soil; inter-tribal warfare has been stopped; we seek to increase 

 the native population, improve their standard of living, and econo- 

 mic status, and native stock multiplies to such an extent that the 

 earth is denuded of vegetation and the soil may be washed away 

 to sea by the next storm. A development based on a real under- 

 standing of Africa's potentialities has hardly yet begun, and will 

 be impossible until the necessity of scientific knowledge is recog- 

 nized. 



