Introduction 



perhaps not much more than some of the peoples 

 upon whose backwardness we are wont to descant 

 most freely. 



Hence, then, a new group of discussions is 

 inevitable and urgent ; that of science in life. 

 What of science in diet and in temperance ? 

 What of science in the home as well as in the 

 mine and factory and railroad ? What of the 

 conditions and life-expectations of the labourer 

 these no less than of the inventions for increasing 

 his day's output ? What, then, of eugenics ? Or, 

 in simple phrase, what of the child ? What of the 

 mother ? of the father also ? What of public 

 health as a whole, and this not only on the ele- 

 mentary plane of water and drains, but of air, of 

 light as well nay, of the whole environment, of 

 civic beauty therefore, of access to nature ? What 

 of the old country life ? How far is this again 

 possible to-day ? What of our present cities ? 

 what is to be their future ? 



That we, none of us, can adequately answer such 

 questions is obvious, but it is all the more urgent 

 that we, who in the past hundred years have 

 changed from one of the most rustic of civilised 

 peoples to the most preponderatingly urban, 

 should waste less time than we are doing in 

 putting ourselves in the way of clearly asking 

 them. 



In such matters of the physical and biological 

 sciences we are, it is true, recognising our back- 

 wardness. But what is to be the place of science 

 in education ? We can no longer simply set up 



xv 



