PATHOGENESIS 309 



modern dominant races "will insist on remaining flesh-eaters 

 even if that necessitates the limitation of their own numbers," 

 and ask from science for nothing more than the most expedient 

 means of producing fat "stock" for culinary purposes. 

 Denn aus Gemeinem 1st der Mensch gemacht 

 Uiid die Gewohnheit nennt er seine Amme. 



It does not seem to me to be in accordance with the 

 noblest spirit of Science the Cartesian spirit which appealed 

 to Huxley to be degraded so as to be nothing more than 

 pandering to the perverted tastes and wasteful instincts of 

 modern town populations. It does not appear to me to redound 

 to the credit of Science that a representative scientific man can 

 declare with a great measure of truth that the important ques- 

 tion of the wasteful conversion of plant food into animal food 

 by pasturage, rather than encourage a cultivation more con- 

 cordant with the true needs of humanity and of organic life 

 generally, cannot be broached because of our gross and 

 dysgenic modern feeding habits. 



" The scientific man has at present little to say to this 

 sociological question." Meanwhile, I suppose, we shall con- 

 tinue submitting to artificial limitations of population, to a 

 vast amount of social evil and discontent, and likewise to an 

 occasional mutual throat-cutting, in order to reduce popula- 

 tion and bring it more in accordance with the demands of our 

 dysgenic instincts. 



Well may they fear some miserable end, 

 Whom gluttony and want at once attend. 



How can we hope to solve the greatest problem of agri- 

 culture, viz., in Mr. Hall's own words, "how to increase the 

 duty (!) of the leaf so that it shall effect a greater production 

 of dry matter for the amount of light energy it receives," 

 without knowledge of what constitutes scientific nutrition? 

 Failing such knowledge, as we have now seen on so many 

 counts, every great biological and sociological problem must 

 remain more or less enigmatical a veritable riddle of the 

 Sphinx in Huxley's words. 



