246 



NATURE 



[October 20, 192 1 



principles, is an appreciation of infra-minute quan- 

 tities of matter. It may be urged by some that 

 within the limits of vision imposed by telescope 

 and microscope, ample material exists to satisfy 

 the curiosity of all reasonable people, but the 

 appetite of scientific inquiry is insatiable, and 

 chemistry alone, organic, inorganic, and physical, 

 offers an instrument by which the investigation of 

 basal changes may be carried to regions beyond 

 those encompassed by the astronomer and the 

 microscopist. 



It is not within the purpose of this address to 

 survey that revolution which is now taking place 

 in the conception of atomic structure. Fortunately 

 for our mental balance the discoveries of the 

 current century, whilst profoundly modifying the 

 atomic imagery inherited from our predecessors, 

 have not yet seriously disturbed the principles 

 underlying systerhatic organic chemistry ; but they 

 emphasise in a forcible manner the intimate con- 

 nection between different branches of science, 

 because it is from the mathematical physicist that 

 these new ideas have sprung. Their immediate 

 value is to reaffirm the outstanding importance of 

 borderline research and to stimulate interest in 

 submicroscopic matter. This interest presents 

 itself to the chemist very early in life and domin- 

 ates his operations with such insistence as to 

 become axiomatic. So much so that he regards 

 the universe as a vast theatre in which atomic 

 and molecular units assemble and interplay, the 

 resulting patterns into which they fall depending 

 on the physical conditions imposed by Nature. 

 This enables him to regard micro-organisms as 

 co-practitioners of his craft, and the chemical 

 achievements of these humble agents have con- 

 tinued to excite his admiration since they were 

 revealed by Pasteur. 



Lamenting as we now do so bitterly the accom- 

 paniments and consequences of war, it is but 

 natural to snatch at the slender compensations 

 w^hich it offers, and not the least among these 

 must be recognised the stimulus which it gives to 

 scientific inquiry. Pasteur's Etudes sur la Biere 

 were inspired by the misfortunes which overtook 

 his country in 1870-71, and the now well-known 

 process of Connstein and Liidecke for augment- 

 ing the production of glycerol from glucose was 

 engendered by parallel circumstances. That 

 acquaintance Avith the yeast-cell which was an out- 

 come of the former event had, by the time of the 

 latter discovery, ripened into a firm friendship, 

 and those who slander the chemical activities of 

 this genial fungus are defaming a potential bene- 

 factor. Equally culpable are those who ignore 

 them. If children were encouraged to cherish 

 the same intelligent sympathy with yeast-cells 

 which they so willingly display towards domestic 

 animals and silkworms, perhaps there would be 

 fewer crazy dervishes to deny us the moderate use 

 of honest malt-liquors and unsophisticated wines, 

 fewer pitiable maniacs to complicate our social 

 problems by habitual excess. 



NO. 2712, VOL. 108] 



Conclusion. 



In "The Salvaging of Civilisation," H. Ci. 

 Wells has lately directed the attention of thought- 

 ful people to the imperative need of reconstructing 

 our outlook on life. Convinced that the state- 

 motive which, throughout history, has intensified 

 the self-motive must be replaced by a world- 

 motive if the whole fabric of civilisation is not to 

 crumble in ruins, he endeavours to substitute for 

 a League of Nations the conception of a World 

 State. In the judgment of many quite benevolent 

 critics his essay in abstract thought lacks prac- 

 tical value because it underestimates the com- 

 bative selfishness of individuals. Try to disguise 

 it as one may, this quality is the one which has 

 enabled man to emerge from savagery, to build up 

 that most wonderful system of colonial organisa- 

 tion, the Roman Empire, and to shake off the bar- 

 baric lethargy which engulfed Europe in the cen- 

 turies following the fall of Rome. The real prob- 

 lem is how to harness this combative selfishness. 

 To eradicate it seems impossible, and it has never 

 been difficult to find glaring examples of its in- 

 sistence among the apostles of eradication. Why 

 cry for the moon? Is it not wiser to recognise 

 this quality as an inherent human characteristic, 

 and whether we brand it as a vice or applaud it 

 as a virtue endeavour to bend it to the elevation 

 of mankind? For it could so be bent. Nature 

 ignored or misunderstood is the enemy of man ; 

 Nature studied and controlled is his friend. If 

 the attacking force of this combative selfishness 

 could be directed, not towards the perpetuation 

 of quarrels between different races of mankind, 

 but against Nature, a limitless field of patience, 

 industry, ingenuity, imagination, scholarship, 

 aggressiveness, rivalry, and acquisitiveness would 

 present itself ; a field in which the disappointment 

 of baffled effort would not need to seek revenge 

 in the destruction of our fellow-creatures : a field 

 in which the profit from successful enterprise 

 would automatically spread through all the com- 

 munities. Surely it is the Nature-motive, as dis- 

 tinct from the state-motive or the world-motive, 

 which alone can salvage civilisation. 



Before long, as history counts time, dire neces- 

 sity will have impelled mankind to some such 

 course. Already the straws are giving their pro- 

 verbial indication. The demand for wheat by 

 increasing populations, the rapidly diminishing 

 supplies of timber, the wasteful ravages of insect 

 pests, the less obvious, but more insidious depre- 

 dations of our microscopic enemies, and the blood- 

 curdling fact that a day must dawn when the last 

 ton of coal and the last gallon of oil have been 

 consumed, are all circumstances which, at present 

 recognised by a small number of individuals com- 

 prising the scientific community, must mevitably 

 thrust themselves upon mankind collectively. In 

 the campaign which then will follow, chemistry 

 must occupy a prominent place because it is this 

 branch of science which deals with matter more 

 intimately than any other, revealing its properties, 





