1282 LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



vaccine, but that, though requirmg meticulous carefuhiess, is not 

 a task for investigators as such. 



THE KINGDOM OF MAN 



We continually hear, and very rightly, of man's conquest of 

 his kingdom, a conquest in which the torch of science is his most 

 effective weapon. We are asked to admire, as we do, such achieve- 

 ments as aviation, broadcasting, capturing the nitrogen of the air, 

 and it is easy to continue the alphabet ; yet there is reason to be also 

 astounded at man's slowness to enter into his kingdom. Especialty 

 as regards the control of animal and plant life, it often seems as if 

 a relapse into easy-going ways comes as the nemesis of every advance. 

 Or is it that the powers that be have not imagination enough to 

 realise what new wealth lies not far from our doors — waiting the 

 investigator's "Open Sesame" ? In regard to the conquest of disease, 

 there has been some far-sighted generosity of endowment, but as 

 regards the fresh exploitation of plants and animals how little! 

 No one supposes that first-class makers of new knowledge are as 

 common as blackberries, but fifty could probably be found in 

 Britain, whom it would be cheap for the nation to employ at such 

 thousands for salaries and equipments as they could vitally and 

 usefully employ. A short time ago the sum of £20,000 was given by 

 the Empire Marketing Board to Kew Gardens for botanical research, 

 and so far well. But ten times that, among our botanic institutions, 

 would not be too much. For it would rapidly "pay" by increasing 

 the national wealth, as the following quotation from a recent article 

 forcibly suggests, "Why within the Empire are we growing canes 

 with fifty per cent, lower percentage of sugar than others that are 

 available? Why are we allowing the prosperity of New Zealand to 

 be arrested by the multiplication of earwigs and the spread of the 

 blackberry — two pests against which a remedy has been discovered 

 at Rothamstead ? Why do we cut down forests (and thereby induce 

 floods) for the sake of paper which might be manufactured out of 

 annuals? Why are we so prone to suppose that we have exhausted 

 the resources of the plant world? We may at any time repeat the 

 economic revolutions produced in the world by the wheat, rice, 

 cotton, and rubber plants. The amazing 'black boy' weed of Australia 

 awaits exploitation. There are plants ready to hand which would 

 change agricultural methods as the turnip did." If all this is true, 

 why are we not more impatient ? 



As to the public need — not simply of fuller information, but of 

 comprehensively social and even moral arousal to the scientific 

 viewpoint as fundamental to the practical — a vivid illustration may 

 be taken from the newspaper before us, one of the best in London. 



