246 PART V.-WORKING STAGE. 



lions to the rank of a definite particle whose entry into our 

 apparatus produces a definite and measurable effect." (James 

 A. Crowther, Molecular Physics, 1919, p. 1.) A historical in- 

 stance is also that relating to scurvy. Green vegetables having 

 been found to be a specific in its prevention and cure, men 

 neglected to notice that long cooking or complete drying de- 

 stroy the anti-scorbutic factor in the vegetables, just as they 

 tacitly inferred that lime-juice, being acid, may be substituted 

 for lemon juice, a disastrous non sequitur, since the anti-scor- 

 butic factor is not to be identified with acidity and since lime- 

 juice contains that factor in negligible quantities only. Likewise, 

 whilst the fertilising agents in animal manure may be detected 

 and artificially produced or found in other substances, animal 

 manures may yet have their distinct value. So, too, unemploy- 

 ment, strike, lock-out, and especially industrial accidents statis- 

 tics, only became definite and truly comparable when they were 

 presented in terms of days lost, and wages only acquired a 

 definite meaning when they were related to the cost of living 

 for a family of five, and when the minimum requirements as 

 to food, etc., were scientifically ascertained. Similarly the con- 

 tention, as by Lord Leverhulme in his work The Six Hour-Day, 

 that modern industrial methods have increased productivity 

 a hundredfold would probably be modified to a modest fen- 

 fold, or fivefold, increase if the actual changes in productivity 

 were definitely envisaged. 



112. Indefiniteness is at present the bane of social inves- 

 tigations. Here is, for example, the extremely important sex 

 problem. How simple and natural it would be to scrutinise 

 closely the facts, and, once for all, to sweep away at least the 

 grosser misconceptions on the subject ! Yet we have a formid- 

 able and ever swelling literature, dealing with one aspect or 

 another of the sex problem, but frequently throwing scarcely 

 a streak of light on the main issues involved. Some few facts 

 here and there have been observed or mal-observed, and forth- 

 with a pamphlet or book is written. For instance, in the high 

 interests of morality scores of publications have appeared which 

 advocate sex enlightenment. Finding that the young stumble 

 over the physiological relation arising out of marriage, ingenious 

 solutions of the difficulty have been propounded. To ensure a 

 sense of purity and a high ideal of marriage, the children should 

 be made acquainted, it is maintained, with the lives of flowers 

 and, more especially, with the general process of the fertilisation 

 of plants. This, bolder reformers supplement with illustrations 

 of the generative processes in fishes and some of the other 

 lower animals, and the most daring delicately encourage the 

 children to observe for themselves what the farm and the street 

 offer in this respect. Still others furnish accounts of the organs 

 of generation in human beings. Only few, however, have the 

 temerity to approach the subject of human paternity. Such 



