432 



NATURE 



[December i6, 1915 



servant a dog?" attitude of mind in which we over- 

 looked the fact that beneath a skin-deep civilisation 

 were the same old elemental passions ready to burst 

 forth. 



In spite of unspeakable horrors war has been one 

 of the master forces in the evolution of a race of 

 beings that has taken several millions of years to 

 reach its present position. During a brief fragment 

 of this time — ten thousand or more years — certain 

 communities have become civilised, as we say, with- 

 out, however, losing the savage instincts ground into 

 the very fibre of their being by long ages of conflict. 

 Suddenly, within a few generations, man finds him- 

 self master of the forces of nature. In the fulness 

 of time a new dispensation has come into the world. 

 Let us see in what way it has influenced his oldest 

 and most attractive occupation. 



Science is a way of looking at the world taught us 

 by the Greeks — a study of nature with a view of 

 utilising her forces in the service of man. ^ It " arose 

 from the simplest facts of common experience, and 

 grew by the co-operation of the mass of men with 

 human intellect at Its highest. And when developed 

 it returns again to strengthen the common intelli- 

 gence and increase the common good. Above all, 

 more perfectly than any other form of thought, it 

 embodies the union of past and present in a conscious 

 and active force." ^ Man's latest acquisition, it has 

 worked a revolution in every aspect of his life, with- 

 out so far changing in any way his nature. He Is 

 still a bit bewildered, and not quite certain whether cr 

 not the Invention is a Frankenstein monster. The 

 promise of Eden of full dominion over nature has 

 only been fulfilled In our day. The flower and fruitage 

 has come suddenly within a couple of generations. 

 Even the seed time was but a few years ago, for to the 

 Heidelberg man, looking down the ages from the 

 Glacial period, Aristotle and Darwin are contem- 

 poraries, Galen and Lister fellow practitioners. Steam 

 and electricity have upset our weekday relations, and 

 the theory of evolution our Sundays. Like a beggar 

 suddenly enriched man has not yet found himself; 

 and the old ways and old conditions often sort ill 

 with the changing times. New bottles could not 

 always be found for the new wine. 



Organised knowledge, science, if living, must infil- 

 trate every activity of human life. There was a 

 difficulty In these Islands, which of fruitful ideas, 

 inventions, and discoveries have had the lion's share, 

 but failed to grasp quickly their practical importance. 

 The leaders of Intellectual and political thought were 

 not awake when the dawn appeared. The oligarchy 

 who ruled politically were ignorant, the hierarchy 

 who ruled intellectually were hostile. Read of the 

 struggles at Oxford and Cambridge in the " fifties " 

 and "sixties" of the last century to get an Idea of 

 the attitude of the intellectual leaders of the country 

 towards " Stinks," the generic term for science. It 

 was not port and prejudice, as In Gibbon's day, but 

 just the hostility of pure medieval ignorance. Those 

 in control of education were more concerned with the 

 issues of Tract 90 and the Colenso case than the 

 conservation of energy and "The Origin of Species." 

 To take but one example. What a change It might 

 have wrought in rural England if, in 1840, when the 

 distinguished Prof. Daubeny was made professor of 

 rural economy, Oxford could have had great State 

 endowment for an Agricultural College. The seed 

 was abundant, and the soil was good, and only needed 

 the cultivation that has been given so freely by mem- 

 bers of the past generation, with what results we see 

 to-day at Oxford and Cambridge and In the new 

 universities. 



1 Marvin. " The T,I> in? Past," second edition, 1915. 



NO. 2407, VOL. 96] 



In two ways science is the best friend war has ever 

 had; it has made slaughter possible on a scale never 

 dreamt of before, and it has enormously Increased 

 man's capacity to maim and to disable his fellow man. 

 In exploiting the peaceful victories of Minerva, Mars 

 has added new glories to his name. More men are 

 killed, more men are wounded, and consequently more 

 men are needed than ever before in the history of the 

 world's wars. From 1790 to 1913 there were 

 18,552,200 men engaged in the great wars, of whom 

 5,498,097 lost their lives (D. E. Smith). In the 

 Balkan wars of 1912-13 there were 1,230,000 men 

 engaged, of whom 350,000 were killed. In the Russo- 

 Japanese War there were 2,500,000 men, of whom 

 555,900 lost their lives (D. E. Smith). It is estimated 

 that in the present war more than twenty-one millions 

 are engaged! As weapons have improved the losses 

 will be yet greater, and we may expect that at least five 

 or six millions of men in the prime of life will be 

 killed. Within a few years artillery and high explo- 

 sives, submarines, and aircraft have so revolutionised 

 our methods of warfare that thousands are now 

 destroyed instead of hundreds. The rifle and the 

 bayonet seem antiquated, and one may go from hos- 

 pital to hospital and not see a wound from the latter, 

 and comparatively few from the former. 



In three directions science has scored In a mission 

 of destruction. What a marvellous adaptation of 

 physics, pneumatics, and mechanics is displayed in 

 a submarine, with which the highest standard of 

 wholesale destruction is reached. In a few seconds 

 a vast battleship, itself a product in every part of 

 scientific genius, is blown asunder and a thousand 

 men and boys sent flying into eternity. Or a colossal 

 liner like the Lusitania, laden with harmless non-com- 

 batants, is torpedoed without warning and above 

 1200 perish miserably, to the inexpressible delight of a 

 kultured nation, whose school children celebrated the 

 event with a holiday.^ 



On land the field-guns, howitzers, and machine- 

 guns have increased enormously our killing capacity; 

 so much so, indeed, that in self-defence the armies 

 have taken to earth, and from the North Sea to the 

 Alps Europe has become a rabbit warren. High 

 explosives, long-range accuracy, and quickness of fire 

 have made the artillery arm the most effective of the 

 Service. Every device of science has been pressed 

 into use, and the aeroplanes with their observers and 

 cameras have plotted the entrenched lines to checker 

 boards, on to any square of which a rain of shell and 

 shrapnel may be poured. The high-explosive shells, 

 the "Jack Johnsons," and the "Black Marias" have 

 played a great r6le In the present war, and not only 

 do they kill and maim, but the shell-shock from 

 commotion puts a large number of men out of action. 

 Against the great Krupp howitzers the forts of 

 Europe have gone down like cardboard houses. 



Artillery and quick-firing machine-guns follow hard 

 upon the torpedo as agencies of destruction. Against 

 an oncoming enemy 20 per cent, of men and 60 to 

 80 per cent, of horses are hit by separate bullets within 

 the "mown area." 



Theoretically all is fair In war, but bv common 

 consent certain practices regarded as cruel are tabooed, 

 such as the use of explosive bullets. Not so In the 

 present war. _ Never before has anything been used 

 by man to kill his fellow man equalled in diabolical 

 capacity for cruelty the use by the Germans of Irre- 

 splrable gas. Had it been a suddenly asphyxiating 

 vapour, such as may have been the breath of the angel 

 of death as he passed over the host of Sennacherib, 

 the action would not perhaps have been thought any 

 more reproachful (in war) than wholesale drowning 



2 Owen Wister, "The Pentecost of Calamity," p. 55. 



