SEPTEMBER 1 7, I 



914] 



NATURE 



79 



iiicf problem of the origin of life. These wise- 

 acres with limitations to their brains say " that is an 

 insoluble problem, we shall never get to the bottom 

 of it, let us simply assume, since it is here, that life 

 did originate somehow, and, taking this as an axiom, 

 proceed to some practical experimental problem ; the 

 origination of life does not lend itself to experimental 

 inquiry." 



Now it is, strange to say, just those problems that 

 appear most insoluble upon which the inquiring tj'pe of 

 mind loves to linger and spend its energies, and, 

 although the problems never may be solved, the misty 

 solitudes to which they lead are glorious and the fitful 

 gleams of half-sunshine that come through are more 

 kindling to the senses of such men, than the brightest 

 sunshine on the barest of hills. It is here, and in 

 such quests, that the biggest of human discoveries 

 are made, and not all of them are in natural science 

 alone. 



The search after the mystery and origin of^ life had 

 profound influence in raising man from a savage to 

 a civilised human being, and is found as an integral 

 part in all religions above a certain level of savagery. 

 Much of the system of morals and ethics of civilised 

 nations is unconsciously grouped round this problem, 

 and we owe the existence of that social conscience 

 which makes each of us our race's keeper to our 

 interest in the nature of life, and our ties with other 

 lives. Leave such a problem alone and attend to 

 routine researches ! Why, the human intellect cannot 

 do it, such problems compel attention ! What, it may 

 be asked, was it that started all this routine research 

 in biology, in favour of which we are asked to 

 abandon the search after the origin of life? The 

 routine research would not exist, but for a discovery 

 made in investigating whether life originated in a 

 certain alleged way. 



If the whole science of bacteriolog}- emerged from 

 a proof that a certain alley did not lead to the origin 

 of life, how much more glorious may that knowledge 

 become that finally leads us to this goal, or even one 

 step onward in our true path towards it. The search 

 after the origin of life is an experimental inquiry, 

 it leads straight to research, that is all the physicist or 

 chemist demands of a theorj- ; it should be enough for 

 the biologist. W^e who search for this are not occult- 

 ists, whatever may be said of those who oppose. 



Let us then learn to have a catholic spirit about 

 research, and tn,' to convince the world that it com- 

 mands devotion, not merely because of material advan- 

 tages which it may bring, but because it is the most 

 lovely and most holy thing that has been given to 

 man. So may we clear the fair name of science of 

 the false charge of materialism that is so often 

 brought against it by those who do not know and 

 judge .science purely by mechanical inventions. 



Next let us consider the applications of scientific 

 discovery and see if we cherish aright the gifts of the 

 fairy godmother, for her gifts are dangerous if wrongly 

 used. Consider, if this be doubted, the enormous 

 advantages given bv mechanical and chemical con- 

 trivances in producing the material comforts necessary 

 to civilised human existence, and then turn vour eyes 

 to the reeking slums of our great cities. It is clear 

 that natural science cannot go on successfully alone, 

 it must take sociology with it if our world is to be a 

 better world to live in because of the gifts brought 

 by scientific discover}-. 



Nor is the ideal and the outlook different in the 

 least from that given above for pure research, when 

 we come to consider its applications, the same higft 

 spirit must prevail in all our endeavours, or we shall 

 defeat our own ends and miserably fail. Selfishness 



NO. 2342, VOL. 94] 



here, as everywhere, must recoil on the culprit, who 

 only deadens his own soul. Health is needed not to 

 grow wealthy or to prolong to greater length a 

 " lingering death," as Plato puts it, but to fill life with 

 happiness, and beckon the bold and adventurous for- 

 ward to higher things. Here we must copy nature's 

 own plan and take care of the race as a whole instead 

 of spending our energies upon single individuals or 

 favoured classes. Nor need anyone fear that any indi- 

 vidual or any particular class in the community ii 

 going to suffer from the adoption of the true scien- 

 tific attitude towards disease. The penalty taken by 

 nature on the more comfortable classes who have 

 hitherto enjoyed the greater share in government for 

 allowing the existence of poverty, disease, and slum- 

 dom, is to utilise this neglected area as a culture- 

 ground for diseases, which invade the classes above. 

 Nature is still at work creating, still conducting evolu- 

 tion at the highest level, and disease is at present the 

 tool with which she is working. So long as those 

 f)Overty-stricken slums are allowed to remain, just so 

 long is she grimly prepared to take her toll of death 

 and suffering from those who ought to know how to 

 lead on and do it not. The disease and the crime 

 below are to the social community what pain is to the 

 individual, and just as the special senses become more 

 highly organised and sensitive as the nervous system 

 becomes more highly developed, so as the civilisation 

 of the community intensifies does the public conscience 

 awaken to forms of mischief and crime in one genera- 

 tion that were unsuspected in a previous one. So 

 social evils become intolerable and finally are removed. 

 How then are we employing our knowledge as to the 

 causation of disease to the public problem of its re- 

 moval or abatement? 



In regard to the physical environment much has 

 been done during the past generation towards apply- 

 ing the laws of hygiene, as is shown in the sanitation 

 of our great cities, and especially in regard to the 

 question of water-supply. It is good, for example", 

 that Glasgow goes to Loch Katrine for her water- 

 supply, Manchester to the English lakes, and Liver- 

 pool to the Welsh hills. Each of these great cities 

 carries for many miles the pure distillate of the hills 

 to its million of inhabitants. It has cost much in 

 pounds sterling, though not more than if each family 

 had a pump in its backyard. On the other hand, 

 think of the disease and suffering and death prevented, 

 enteric fever almost gone where thousands would have 

 died of it, and tens of thousands been debilitated, and 

 these of the best of the citizens, for disease is no 

 eliminator of the unfit. Think of all this, and then 

 say. Did it not pay these great cities to bring the pure 

 water from the lakes in the hills? 



But why do these good cities content themselves to 

 allow their little children at a most susceptible age to 

 be supplied still with milk which contains the bacillus of 

 tuberculosis in so large a percentage as 5 to 10 per 

 cent. ? And why does the law of the land prevent 

 these corporations from searching out tubercular cows 

 in all the areas supplying them with milk? If it is 

 part of the business of a municipality to see that its 

 citizens have a pure water-supply, why should it not 

 also be allowed to see that they have a clean milk- 

 supply ? 



Long ago the power to make the lame to walk was 

 regarded as a divine gift. When is mankind going to 

 awake to the fact that science has placed this gift in 

 its hands? Much more than half of the lame and 

 spinally-deformed children in our midst are in that 

 condition because of infection of joints or spine with 

 the bacillus of tuberculosis. By open-air hospitals and 

 open-air schools we seek and succeed in curing a per- 



