NATURE 



:oi 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER .4, 1918. 



WAR \m> /'/•: k /•:. 



HPHE turmoil which has shaken the civilised 

 -*• world to its Foundations since August, 1914, 

 d with the signing of the armistice with 

 Germany on Monday, November ii. A war which 

 was deliberately provoked brute 



fori e as a quick means of profil iridise- 



tnent ha- ended in the triumph of free nations 

 allied againsl them. Freed from the incubus of the 

 -rattling military aristocracy of Prussia, and 

 from the arrogance of an Emperor obsessed with 

 the lust of conquest, the peoples of the world can 

 ite themselves to peai eful pursuits. Lei 

 us hope that the immoral militarism which led to 

 the war, and sacrificed ail principles of faith- 

 keeping, justice, and humanity to attain its 

 purpose, 'Ms been vanquished lor ever, and that 



we have seen the last struggle Ol a system which 

 has dominated a large part of mankind lor 

 centuries. 



In the early days of the war the Germans 

 attempted to justify their belief in the justice of 

 might by an appeal to the prim iples of Darwinism. 

 Tin- doctrine of the struggle for existence and the 

 survival of the fittest cannot, however, sanction the 

 ruthless exertion of force and the use of knowledge 

 in the service of egotism and German Kultur. 

 What it should signify is a movement towards 

 higher planes of civilisation and the progressive 

 development of the ethical nature of the human 

 Evolution embodies the idea "1 social ethics, 

 .mil makes the welfare of the community the 



iiial put pose of the life of th. i reature. The 

 that Darwinism implies nothing more than 



mal or national mastery at all costs is a crude 

 misconception of this great principle, contrary to 

 the best ends of civilisation. 



eeds of the German land, sea, 

 and air forces cannot be excused by reference to 



sound principle of human progress. The spirit 

 represented by such ai murder of inno- 



cent and unoffending- non-combatants, heartless 

 cruelty to women and children, an.] destruction 

 of priceless buildings, is unworthy of twentieth- 

 centurj civilisation, and if it had prevailed in the 

 end the sun of righteo ould have set on 



the world for centuries. Science and scientific 

 principles must not be held responsible for these 

 outward and visible signs oi moral degeneration. 

 Chlorine is a bleaching-pow der for a 



hundred years before the Germans adopted it as 

 a poison gas. Thermit was employed in the arts 

 before it was used in incendiary bombs. Nitre is 

 a fertiliser as well .is a constituent of gunpowder. 

 NO. 2 550, VOL. I02l 



Tin- search for truth, and the discovery of new 

 substances and forces in Nature, must not be 

 impeded because unwo be made of 



the results. What has to be done is to advance 

 moral and ethical ideas to higher levels, so that 

 new knowledge shall benefit the human race 



■ I of being used to destroy it. Unless this 

 i-, accepted, there will be an end bf civilisation, 

 for it is possible to conceive of a time when the 

 at man's disposal will be so strong that a 

 hostile army or an enemy's city may be destroyed 

 almost at the touch of a button. 



The popular mind has associated science arid 

 specialised education with German truculence and 

 perfidy, and lias even supposed that these con- 

 ditions are necessarily related to each other. The 

 characters exhibited by Germany in the conduct 

 of the war are not, however, the result of over- 

 cultivation of science, but of a disastrous defici- 

 ency in mora! and ethical training. The moral 

 sense of a nation requires educating as well as the 

 intellect ; and higher civilisation demands that 

 regard for truth and for the sanctity of a promise 

 should be inculcated as being even more important 

 possessions than the knowledge and use of recent 

 discoveries and inventions. The war has shown 

 that spiritual qualities count for much more than 

 mere numbers. Our system of education was 

 inefficient, but it produced a nation of young 

 heroes. As, however, modern war is an affair of 

 applied science — military, engineering, chemical, 

 physical, medical, and economic — it is essential 

 that those who take part in it should be provided 

 with efficient scientific weapons. We I 

 nothing to fear from making science the main axle 

 of the educational coach instead of a fifth wheel, 

 provided only that the right position is given to 

 character training as well. 



Though war is not an exact science, and cannot 

 be reduced to a series of mathematical formula-, 

 tactics ar. affected by the progress of 



e, and disaster may ensue ii Fed is not 



correctly appreciated. A nation whii h lags behind, 

 therefore, in scientific development does so at the 

 cost of a possible loss of supremacy in times ol 

 war. Scientific discovery, mechanical invention, 

 and a highly technical organisation, as employed 

 by the Germans, could be beaten only by similar 



- arrayed againsl them. The scientific 

 resources ol the British nation were not drawn 

 upon until tin formation of the Ministry of Muni- 

 tions in [915; and it is these that have provided 

 the country with the scientific material and 



.uerv by which, with similar efforts by our 

 \llii s, success has been achieved. If we had not 

 had the chemists to produce the high explosives 

 required, the majority of which are derived from 



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