86 Psyche [August 



appear to be generally agreed that the fundamental causes are to 

 be found in pre-war Germany's need for expansion, in the pressure 

 of democratic ideas upon her autocratic regime, in the doctrine 

 of the Superman and the ambition for world conquest, in the 

 rivalry for trade routes and world trade, etc., etc., and that the 

 conflict was precipitated by Austro-Serbian friction and, directly, 

 by the assassination of the Austrian archduke. But alas for our 

 limited human understanding! Our historians and scholars have 

 apparently completely overlooked one of the most important and 

 immediate facts in the chain of causation, namely, the fatal activ- 

 ities of an insect — an object infinitely more mischievous if far more 

 insignificant and less attractive than Discordia's apple — a parasite 

 (species unfortunately not known). I am unable to state at the 

 present moment how this extremely important discovery came to 

 be made or through what channels the intelligence reached this 

 country; whether it is to the credit of some able press correspond- 

 ent, or whether it is due to the Red Cross or American Medical 

 Mission. The fact is inseparably bound up with a most pathetic 

 occurrence — as pathetic as its effects were far-reaching and terrible 

 — of which the following is the briefest outline : In a village in the 

 interior of Serbia there lived a maiden who was loved passionately 

 by a youth of the same village. But while she apparently accepted 

 his, her own love, strange as it may seem, focused upon a beautiful, 

 little, caged bird which she possessed and which she prized above 

 all things. In the course of time, however, an insect parasite 

 attacked the bird and killed it. The gentle girl, affected to the 

 depths of her inmost being })y the loss, developed fever and after a 

 short illness died. The ardent youth, her lover, half -crazed by the 

 event, rushed away from the village, the scene of his tragic mis- 

 fortune, and out into the world. Some time later, in another part 

 of the country, he became a member of an extreme patriotic- 

 revolutionary organization and very shortly afterwards, at Sara- 

 jevo, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of xVustria. The 

 last, as is known, led to Austria's ultimatum to Serbia and to 

 the war. 



The conclusion for lesson) is, of course, clear. Had there been 

 sufficient entomological knowledge in that Serbian town to diagnose 

 the bird's malady and to devise proper remedial measures, the 

 world war with all its attendant horrors might have been averted. 



