382 



NATURE 



[December 2, 1915. 



of research in the various branches of biology, as pure 

 sciences, inaugurated by Vesalius's anatomical dissec- 

 tions (about 1530), by Harvey's discovery of the circu- 

 lation of the blood (about 1616), by Hooker's introduc- 

 tion of the microscope (about 1665), by Leeuwenhoek's 

 discovery of protozoa (1675), and indeed of bacteria 

 (1687), and continued by a succession of unselfish men 

 whose names are as household words to all biologists, 

 had led up naturally to the mighty contributions of 

 Pasteur, Lister, and Koch in bacteriology. Then fol- 

 lowed, logically, the investigations of Reed and others 

 upon yellow fever infection, and of Laveran, Manson, 

 and Ross upon malarial infection. Except for such 

 voluntary tests as were made at the peril of their 

 lives by Drs. Lazear and Carroll in Cuba in the year 

 1900, in which I.azear paid the extreme penalty of 

 death from yellow fever, and for the tests made by 

 many other volunteers, especially in Italy, as to 

 malaria, in order to determine the precise conditions 

 under which certain mosquitoes transmit these 

 diseases, the canal would not be complete to-day. 

 Our Government might not, in fact, have started upon 

 its construction ; or, if the Government had started 

 blindly to lead the blind, there would have been failure 

 as miserable as that recorded by the French canal 

 company, and for the same reason. We forget un- 

 pleasant facts quickly ; for example : that of thirty-six 

 brave French nurses who came together to the canal 

 zone, only twelve returned to France; that out of 

 eighteen ambitious young French engineers who 

 crossed the Atlantic on the same ship for service on 

 the canal, only one was alive at the end of thirty 

 days; and that the labourers died by the thousands. 

 The project of constructing the canal was surrendered 

 to an unknown enemy. Let us assume, however, 

 that such sacrifices had prevailed in their purpose, and 

 that the canal had been completed in accordance with 

 the engineering plans. With malaria and yellow fever 

 still ruling in the canal zone, and with the zone as 

 a centre of infection for all ports of the Atlantic and 

 the Pacific, would a completed canal be a valued asset 

 to commerce, or would it be a constant menace and a 

 nuisance? Let Memphis and Havana and New 

 Orleans answer. A grateful people could worthily 

 erect by the Golden Gate a monument to Lazear, who 

 gave all that he had to make the construction of the 

 canal possible, and to make the completed canal of 

 permanent value. 



The minds of all thoughtful people are dwelling 

 daily upon another great application of science — the 

 European and world-wide war. During the past 

 twelve months the resources of the leading European 

 nations have been applied with the utmost intensity 

 to purposes of destruction — to turning the hands of 

 civilisation backward. The most recent discoveries in 

 science and the latest inventions are utilised in dealing 

 death to the foe, from the air, from the land, from the 

 sea, and from under the sea. It Is a fact that the 

 efficiency of the engines of death in all nations is 

 measured by the state of science in those nations. 

 By way of comment upon this lamentable truth, what 

 shall we who advocate the advancement of science 

 say for the faith that Is In us? The prostitution of 

 science to the killing and crippling of men Is Indeed 

 an ugly fact, but Its results are negligible In com- 

 parison with the daily ministrations of science to the 

 people's needs. A conflagration may burn a great 

 city ; but the Inhabitants of that city do not ask that 

 fire, the most useful servant of the human race, shall 

 be banished from their daily lives. The remarkable 

 advance In the civilisation of the leading nations 

 during- the past four centuries has been due, chiefly, to 

 the daily and hourly Influences of accurate knowledge 

 and scientific method ; and this advance has been made 

 not by virtue of, but In spite of, wars and the Imple- 

 NO. 2405, VOL. 96] 



mehts of warfare. In this connection, let us note 

 that the scientific spirit is all but unknown among 

 the Turks, the Moroccans, the Mohammedans in 

 general, the Hindoos, the Egyptians, the Chinese. 

 Amongst all these peoples, comprising three-fifths 

 of the human race, can any one of us to-day recall 

 the names of three men who have contributed appre- 

 ciably to the advancement of science in the past two 

 centuries? The very limited introduction of scientific 

 method into their countries is the work of alien 

 governors or alien influence. The unscientific nations 

 are threatened with absorption by their more scientific 

 neighbours, not so much because they do not invent 

 or perfect the most powerful cannon, the sturdiest 

 Dreadnought, the speediest aeroplane, or the subtlest 

 submarine, as because the scientific peoples forge 

 ahead of them in the arts of peace. In the modes of 

 thought, in the affairs of daily life. The unscientific 

 peoples are without Influence in the world, not because 

 they are unwarlike — the Turks and essentially all 

 Mohammedans are warlike enough to suit the most 

 exacting — but because they are lacking in the every- 

 day efficiency which accompanies the scientific spirit. 



The term science may be defined in several ways. 

 From the point of view which interests us to-day, we 

 may say that science is the relationship of cause and 

 effect. Wherever we observe an effect there has been 

 a cause; wherever causes are operating there will be 

 effects. The same causes, acting under precisely the 

 same conditions, will produce precisely the same 

 effects. This is the experience of every investigator 

 in every subject, and no one has the slightest reason 

 to doubt the correctness of the principle. There Is no 

 room for the operation of the arbitrary and the 

 capricious; in fact, the arbitrary and the capricious do 

 not exist in nature. If In one case out of a hundred 

 the result which Interests us Is different from what 

 we had expected, we may rest assured that In this one 

 case some change occurred In the forces acting; a 

 new force entered, an old force became Inoperative, or 

 the relative intensities of the active forces changed. 

 When we do not understand why certain events 

 occurred it means that we do not understand the forces 

 which acted to produce the events. The correct ex- 

 planation of the events means that we have isolated 

 the causes and have been able to express the laws of 

 their action. 



The forces which have Interested mankind range 

 from those cosmic forces which operate on a scale 

 so stupendous that we have no control over them, 

 down through those forces which we can control to 

 a limited extent, and on to those which are absolutelv 

 subject to human control. We are not able to limit 

 or to Increase the output of the sun's heat, and we 

 cannot guide the movements of the comets, planets, 

 and stars in their orbits. We do not know how to 

 stay the wind and the rain, but we can apply them. 

 In a limited degree, to our purposes, and we can do 

 much to protect ourselves from their Injurious effects. 

 The forces which govern the daily life of the indi- 

 vidual, the community, and the nation, and which 

 govern the relations of Individuals, communities, and 

 nations to each other are, with rare exceptions, either 

 absolutely under human control or such control is a 

 hopeful aspect of the near future. These forces are 

 the means to certain logical ends, and we cannot 

 question that they also operate unerringly according 

 to law. Whether they shall be applied for civilisation 

 or against civilisation Is for man to decide. The 

 automobile may be used to bring the physician on 

 an errand of mercy, or to hasten the robber to a place 

 of concealment and Immunity. Hlp-h explosives will 

 cut a canal through the Culebra ridge, or deal de- 

 struction from a 12-in. shell. The American armv 

 may establish local self-government in Cuba from the 



