170 



DISCOVERY 



have a right to be heard. And, indeed, the men who 

 have studied this subject as ably and as completely 

 as human beings can study anything take a different 

 view.' They think that biological necessities like 

 over-population and search for food have little to do 

 with causing war. War is. they believe, a custom. 

 They are even inclined to think it a custom of relatively 

 late origin. It is now merely a mode of action 

 whereby an organised state tries to achieve certain 

 political ends. Note the important bearing of this 

 informed view of war on our political conduct. War, a 

 biological necessity, seems an evil we are powerless to 

 resist. But if the biologists are right in thinking there 

 is nothing in the nature of man or of social organisa- 

 tions which renders war inevitable, it is within the 

 power of mankind to renounce war as a mode of action. 

 This illustrates clearly how an unscientific view can 

 lead people in the wTong direction. 



Let us take, secondh', an example from physical 

 science itself. Some months ago there was great ado 

 about a man in Canada who claimed he could bring down 

 rain artificially in a dry district. He had, among other 

 things, a box of chemicals whose contents he kept secret, 

 and he claimed that in some way or other this (the box, 

 not the secret) helped to bring down the rain. Many 

 believed that this method was an excellent one, because 

 rain and clouds often appeared as if in obedience to the 

 magician's box. But none of these observers really 

 sifted the weather statistics of previous years to learn 

 if there was really anything abnormal in this. On the 

 other hand, many people condemned a procedure of this 

 kind as a fraud (or, to use a better-tempered phrase, a 

 " frost "), not because they knew anything about 

 meteorology or this particular application of it, but 

 simply because they did not understand it. They did 

 not understand it, and therefore it was wTong. A 

 second objection to the method was that the rain- 

 producer was paid when he achieved a success, but was 

 not fined correspondingly or, I believe, at all when he 

 failed. This was considered unsporting, and because 

 the rain-producer was not a sportsman it followed at 

 once, these people argued, that the method must 



be bad. 



***** 



ft is of course apparent that none of these opinions 

 are of any value in helping towards an ideal — • 

 man's ability to produce rain wherever or when- 

 ever he wills. But they are typical of the kind of 

 argument which people love to use. The only one 

 whose opinion is of \'alue is the meteorologist who has 

 studied this subject. What does he think ? As a 

 matter of interest we may give his views. The meteor- 



' See The Population Problem. By A. M. Carr-Saunders. 

 (Oxford : Clarendon Press.) P. 305. 



ologist - says two things. First that the scientific 

 scrutiny of results furnishes no real evidence what- 

 ever that anything abnormal occurred when the 

 rain-producer was active, and secondly that, as far 

 as he knows, there is only one way of making water 

 vapour in the air condense, and that is by cooling it 

 below its dew-point. This may be done in two ways : 

 by cooling the air directly, which is impracticable 

 because of the cost of cooling, and by raising the moist 

 air high enough and, by so decreasing its pressure, 

 cooling it ; but this cannot be done because there is 

 no source of energy available to do it. Other ways 

 have been suggested from time to time, notably a 

 method of agitating the air by firing guns or exploding 

 shells, but these, after consideration, are rejected as 

 not being of value. The meteorologist thinks artificial 

 production of rain impossible at the present time. 

 ***** 



There, are two things we should say in conclusion. 

 \\'e do not believe the scientific method is universally 

 applicable ; and on those subjects to which it is applied 

 individuals have not, as a rule, the time or the ability 

 to get at the truth themselves by the approved methods. 

 But there are experts, and we must trust them. 

 ***** 



According to a telegram which appeared in The Times 

 of April 24th, a remarkable discovery of " mummy 

 caves " more than sixty feet below the ground has been 

 made in the Koster district, 100 miles west of Johannes- 

 burg. It was reported that the remains of a tiger had 

 been seen among the mummified animals in the cave. 

 The tiger, however, does not occur in South Africa. 

 The son of a former owner of the cave stated that 

 he partly explored the cave, which is of great extent, 

 in 1912, and in one place high walls were covered with 

 red pictures, which it may be assumed were similar 

 to the bushmen's paintings. A later dispatch states 

 that the caves have been visited by a scientific investi- 

 gator, who found in the neighbourhood numerous 

 implements and traces of a vanished race. Although 

 the character of the evidence is not more precisely 

 defined, it may be presumed from this statement that 

 the implements were of palaeolithic and not of the usual 

 bushman type. Further investigations are to be made 

 of which the results will be awaited with interest. 

 ***** 



Interest in the problem of the antiquity of man has 

 been further stimulated by the discovery last year at 

 Foxhall in East Anglia of implements which have since 

 been accepted by the highest authorities as undoubted 

 evidence for the existence of man in the Tertiary 

 period. This evidence would, therefore, carry back 

 man's existence to a date many thousands of years 



-Nalure. November 3, 192 1. P. 313. 



I 



