6o8 



NATURE 



[January 27, 19 16 



attention to the transportation and slaughtering of 

 animals intended for food, an admirable piece of 

 pioneering which brought about great improvements, 

 and served as a basis for further measures of defence 

 for the community. The common use of cold storage 

 for meats, vegetables, and fruits has lately increased 

 the need of protection against damaged foods ; and this 

 cold-storage process is likely to be more and more 

 used in the future — quite legitimately — for the preserva- 

 tion of perishable foods produced in greater quantity 

 than can be sold at or near the time of their produc- 

 tion. A cold-storage plant performs as to foods the 

 function of the reservoir in an irrigation plant. Both 

 urban and rural communities have much to hope in 

 the future from cold storage and irrigation ; but to 

 both these public utilities applied biological science 

 must contribute indispensable precautions. There are 

 climates in which extensive irrigation is liable to pro- 

 duce and perpetuate pestiferous insects. 



One of the most favourable results of applied 

 biology during the past fifty years is the great addition 

 made to the means of detecting the true causes of 

 abnormal conditions within the human body, and to 

 the accuracy of diagnostic reasoning on both acute 

 and chronic disorders. These new means of diagnosis 

 and examination are in part chemical and physical, 

 but chiefly biological. The theory and practice of 

 asepsis are results of biological researches. Compara- 

 tive anatomy, physiology, and pathology all contribute 

 largely to modern sanitation and to all the practices 

 of boards of health for the discovery and prevention 

 of insanitar}^ conditions in both urban and rural com- 

 munities. Very promising examples of these useful 

 practices are : the precautions nowadays taken against 

 contagious disease in schools ; the employment of school 

 nurses; the inspection of school children's teeth, eyes, 

 noses, ears, and skin ; the discovery in the mass of 

 school children of the defective, the feeble-minded, 

 and of those suffering from glandular abnormalities, 

 particularly in the nose, mouth, and throat. The effec- 

 tive treatment of school children following on the 

 detection of their disorders or defects promises much 

 towards the better health of the coming generations. 

 The successful use of the Schick test, which enables 

 the physician through a laboratory expert to separate 

 the susceptible from the non-susceptible individuals 

 who have been exposed to diphtheria, and therefore 

 to avoid all unnecessary administrations of antitoxin, 

 seems to open a wide prospect in the study of natural 

 immunity. The process of improvement is not going 

 to stop ; on the contrary, it will advance at an acceler- 

 ated pace. 



Another great field for applied biological science in 

 the future is the contest against alcoholism and sexual 

 vice. This Is an important part of the province of 

 social hygiene, a province which includes the philan- 

 thropic and economic treatment of the feeble-mjnded, 

 the insane, the paralysed, and the blind. The field is 

 enormous ; and its evils are intimately connected one 

 with another ; but in the whole field the means of cure 

 and prevention have come in the main from biological 

 research. There is every reason to expect that this 

 great field for Christian effort will hereafter be more 

 effectually cultivated than It has ever been. 



In connection with the medical, surgical, and sani- 

 tary activities ol the present day. new forms of educa- 

 tional effort have been instituted which are very pro- 

 mising for the future health and comfort of mankind. 

 Thus, the institution of district nursing has already 

 developed strong educational effects. The district 

 nurse goes from house to house to treat and comfort 

 individual patients suffering from various disorders; 

 but in every house she also teaches the mother, sister, 

 or some other attendant on the sick or injured person, 



NO. 2413, VOL. 96] 



how to perform herself the remedial operations, how 

 to feed the patient, and how to prevent the communi- 

 cation of the disease to other persons ; and this teach- 

 ing function of the nurse is quite as important as her 

 curative or comforting ministrations. The social 

 worker who follows up the out-patients of a great 

 hospital, sees them at their homes, studies their sui- 

 roundings, and gives them sympathetic counsel, has a 

 similar teaching function, which often takes strong 

 effect on whole families and even larger groups. Like 

 the district nurse, she also frequently obtains family 

 histories which are of value to students of inheritance, 

 good or bad, and of eugenics. The same is true of 

 the school nurses and medical inspectors who are 

 employed by American cities in which the health de- 

 partment is strong and well organised. These nurses 

 and doctors not only detect defects and diseases in 

 school children, but indicate to parents or friends the 

 remedial measures that are demanded, and give much 

 instruction to parents and guardians about keeping 

 children well. The same educational function is per- 

 formed by the dentists who are being employed in a 

 few American cities to make periodical inspections of 

 the teeth of school children. These large-scale exam- 

 inations and teachings call for acquaintance with bac- 

 teriological information and methods only recently 

 acquired, and for skill in the use of diagnostic tools 

 and appliances only recently Invented. These new 

 applications of biological science promise great reduc- 

 tion of human suffering and distress, and significant 

 additions to average longevity and average efficiency 

 so soon as they come into general use. 



Biological science has made possible several other 

 kinds of widespread teaching which are certain to 

 have beneficial effects on the productiveness of human 

 labour, particularly in agriculture — the fundamental 

 industry. Thus, the whole work of the International 

 Health Commission is essentially educational. It 

 teaches the people in hook-worm disease districts by 

 demonstration, first, that they have the disease; 

 secondly, that it can be cured in the individual and 

 eradicated from the community; and, thirdlv, that the 

 embryos of the disease live by thousands in soil that 

 has been befouled by an infected person, and are there 

 ready to Infect any person with whose bare, soft skin 

 they come into contact. These demonstrations com- 

 bined teach the people how the disease may be avoided 

 In the future by an individual or by a community. 

 As a result of this educational work, the common 

 people and the health authorities co-operative effec- 

 tively in both the work of treatment and that of pre- 

 vention. 



Another illustration of the broad educational pro- 

 cesses now at work in consequence of the achievements 

 of applied biology is to be found in the short courses 

 given by many State universities to farmers and their 

 grown-up sons on the principles of agriculture, the 

 choice of seeds, and stock-raising, and in the itinerant 

 teaching for adults now carried on by the U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture throughout the southern States on 

 similar subjects. This instruction is supplemented by 

 the offer of prizes, and the setting-up of model farms, 

 or model acres, in great number as lessons and incite- 

 ments to neighbourhoods. The effects on the produc- 

 tiveness of American agriculture, especially in cotton 

 and corn, are already remarkable; but the promise 

 of these educational methods for the future is^ more 

 precious still. Several colleges and universities of 

 high standing now provide short courses which run 

 from six to twelve weeks, some in winter and some 

 in summer, expressly to prepare teachers or leaders lor 

 frirls' canning clubs and home demonstration work. 

 These courses cover cooking, canning, sewing, market 

 gardening, poultry husbandry, plant propagation, and 



