CHAPTER XII 

 BIOLOGY IN ITS WIDER ASPECTS 



THE BOOK OF NATURE — Many of the sciences have grown out 

 of practical lore: thus Natural History sprang from the traditions 

 of hunters and shepherds and fishing folk; and Jacob, experimenting 

 with his cattle, was one of the pioneer geneticists. As experience- lore 

 grew and was critically sifted, when it was tested and summed up in 

 formulae, there was the emergence of sciences. These have never 

 ceased to pay back to the practical man the debt they owe; and 

 each often comes back with eagerness to some practical problem, 

 old or new, well aware that it gives a fresh inspiration, even leads 

 to higher result. 



Thus, if there is any question as to the value of Natural History, 

 for instance, it is always possible to begin at a utilitarian level and 

 indicate its practical gifts. It has done big things for the amehoration 

 of human life, and what Bacon called the relief of man's estate. It 

 has helped him, not indeed to domesticate animals (for that is mainly 

 pre-historic), but greatly to improve his breeds; it has increased 

 his powers of exploiting the natural resources of sea and land; it has 

 strengthened his hands against his enemies, so that the serpent that 

 bites his heel is now in most cases reduced to the microscopically 

 minute, and that too being increasingly conquered; it has given him 

 control over many of his most formidable diseases, such as malaria, 

 plague, hookworm, and bilharziasis. 



Is not biology enabling man to understand himself better, in the 

 light, for instance, of the hormones which so regulate the growth 

 and life of the body, and even profoundly affect the health of the 

 mind? When man cares enough, there is already at his disposal a 

 body of secure science which would enable him in a few generations 

 to realise the dreams of those who see visions to-day of eugenics, 

 eutechnics, and eutopias, not forgetting eupsychics! If it were not 

 for the immediate appeal of pottage (some of us must confess to 

 great sympathy with Esau), there might soon be another Golden 

 Age. Our forefathers had more goodwill than knowledge; but 

 to-day there is more knowledge than we have awakened will-power 

 to use. Alike in his science and in his social complexity, man has 

 outrun his evolution as an organism — a summation which we 

 cannot but suggest as a diagnosis of many of our present-day 

 troubles. 



But passing from what may be called the directly practical, we 

 would ask how Natural History enriches man's mind. And first we 



