August 2, 1906] 



NA TURE 



ZZl 



discovered by Hruce — namely, that the native big game 

 (zebras, antelopes, and probably buffaloes), are lokrant of 

 the parasite. The Trypanosoma grows and multiplies in 

 their blood, but does not kill them or even injure them. 

 It is only the unaccustomed introduced animals from 

 Europe which are poisoned by the chemical excreta of the 

 Trypanosomes and die in consequence. Hence the wild 

 creatures — brought into a condition of tolerance by natural 

 selection and the dying out of those susceptible to the 

 poison — form a sort of "reservoir" of deadly Trypanosomes 

 for the Tsetze flies to carry into the blood of new-comers. 

 The same phenomenon of " reservoir-hosts " (as I have else- 

 where called them) has since been observed in the case of 

 malaria ; the children of the native blacks in Africa and in 

 other malarious regions are tolerant of the malarial parasite, 

 as many as So per cent, of children under ten being found 

 to be infected, and yet not suffering from the poison. This 

 is not the same thing as the immunity which consists in 

 repulsion or destruction of the parasite. 



The Trypanosomes have acquired a terrible notoriety 

 within the last four years, since another species, also carried 

 by a Tsetze fly of another species, has been discovered by 

 Castellani in cases of sleeping sickness in Uganda, and 

 demonstrated by Colonel Bruce to be the cause of that 

 awful disease. More than 200,000 natives of Uganda have 

 died from it within the last five years. It is incurable, and, 

 sad to relate, not only a certain number of European 

 employes have succumbed to it in tropical Africa, but a 

 brave young olTicer of the Army Medical Corps, Lieutenant 

 Tulloch, has died from the disease acquired by him in the 

 course of an investigation of this disease and its possible 

 cure, which he was carrying out, in association with other 

 men of science, on the Victoria Nyanza Lake in Central 

 Africa. Lieutenant Tulloch was sent out to this investiga- 

 tion by the Royal Society of London, and I will venture to 

 ask you to join that body in sympathy for his friends, and 

 admiration for him and the other courageous men who risk 

 their lives in the endeavour to arrest disease. 



Trypanosomes are now being recognised in the most 

 diverse regions of the world as the cause of disease — new 

 horse diseases in South America, in North Africa, in the 

 Philippines and East India are all traced to peculiar species 

 of Trypanosome. Other allied forms are responsible for 

 Delhi-sore, and certain peculiar Indian fevers of man. A 

 peculiar and ultra-minute parasite of the blood cells causes 

 Texas fever, and various .African fevers deadly to cattle. In 

 all these cases, as also in that of plague, the knowledge of 

 the carrier of the disease, often a mite or acarus — in that 

 of plague the flea of the rat — is extremely important, as 

 well as the knowledge of reservoir-hosts when such exist. 



The zoologist thus comes into closer touch than ever 

 with the profession of medicine, and the time has arrived 

 when the professional students of disease fully admit that 

 they must bring to their great and hopeful task of abolish- 

 ing the diseases of man the fullest aid from every branch 

 of biological science. I need not say how great is the 

 contentment of those who have long worked at apparently 

 useless branches of science, in the belief that all know- 

 ledge is good, to find that the science they have cultivated 

 has become suddenly and urgently of the highest practical 

 value. 



I have not time to do more than mention here the effort 

 that is being made by combined international research and 

 cooperation to push further our knowledge of phthisis 

 and of cancer, with a view to their destruction. It is 

 only since our last meeting at York that the parasite of 

 Phthisis or Tubercle has been made known ; we may hope 

 that it will not be long before we have similar knowledge 

 as to Cancer. Only eighteen months have elapsed since 

 Fritz Schaudinn discovered the long-sought parasitic germ 

 of Syphilis, the Spirochaeta pallida. As I write these 

 words the sad news of Schaudinn 's death at the age of 

 thirty-five comes to me from his family at Hamburg — an 

 irreparable loss. 



Let me finally state, in relation to this study of disease, 

 what is the simple fact — namely, that if the people of 

 Britain wish to make an end of infective and other diseases 

 they must take every possible means to discover capable 

 investigators, and employ them for this purpose. To do 



NO. I918, VOL. 74] 



this, far more money is required than is at present spent 

 in that direction. It is necessary, if we are to do our 

 utmost, to spend a thousand pounds of public money on 

 ihis task where we now spend one pound. It would be 

 reasonable and wise to expend ten million pounds a year 

 of our revenues on the investigation and attempt to destroy 

 disease. Actually, what is so spent is a mere nothing, a 

 few thousands a year. Meanwhile our people are dying 

 by thousands of preventable disease. 



11. The Advancement of Science as Measured nv the 

 Support given to it by Public Eunds, and the Respect 

 Accorded to Scientific Work by the British Govern- 

 ment and the Community at Large. 



Whilst I have been able, though in a very fragmentary 

 and incomplete way, to indicate the satisfactory and, 

 indeed, the wonderful progress of science since this 

 Association last met in York, so far as the making of 

 new knowledge is concerned, I am sorry to say that there 

 is by no means a corresponding " advancement " of Science 

 in that signification of the word which implies the increase 

 uf the influence of science in the life of the community, 

 the increase of the support given to it, and of the desire 

 to aid in its progress, to discover and then to encourage 

 and reward those who are specially fitted to increase 

 scientific knowledge, and to bring it to bear so as to 

 promote the welfare of the community. I am speaking 

 on a privileged occasion to a body of men who are met 

 together for the Advancement of Science, and I claim the 

 right to say to them, without offence to the representatives 

 of institutions which I criticise, what is in my mind. 



It is, unfortunately, true that the successive political 

 administrators of the affairs of this country, as well as 

 the permanent officials, are altogether unaware to-day, as 

 they were twenty-five years ago, of the vital importance of 

 that knowledge which we call science, and of the urgent 

 need for making use of it in a variety of public affairs. 

 Whole departments of Government in which scientific 

 knowledge is the one thing needful are carried on by 

 ministers, permanent secretaries, assistant secretaries, and 

 clerks who are wholly ignorant of science, and naturally 

 enough dislike it since it cannot be used by them, and is 

 in many instances the condemnation of their official 

 employment. Such officials are, of course, not to be 

 blamed, but rather the general indifference of the public 

 to the unreasonable way in which its interests are 

 neglected. 



A difficult feature in treating of this subject is that when 

 one mentions the fact that ministers of State and the 

 officials of the public service are not acquainted with 

 science, and do not even profess to understand its results 

 or their importance, one's statement of this very obvious 

 and notorious fact is apt to be regarded as a personal 

 offence. It is difficult to see wherein the offence lies, for 

 no one seeks to blame these officials for a condition of 

 things which is traditional and frankly admitted. 



This is really a very serious matter for ' the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science to consider 

 and deal with. We represent a line of activity, a group 

 of professions which are in our opinion of vital impcrt- 

 ance to the well-being of the nation. We know that those 

 interests which we value so highly are not merely ignored 

 and neglected, but are actually treated as of no account 

 or as non-existent by the old-established class of politicians 

 and administrators. It is not too much to say that there 

 is a natural fear and dislike of scientific knowledge on 

 the part of a large proportion of the persons who are 

 devoid of it, and who would cease to hold, or nevr have 

 held, the positions of authority or emolument which thev 

 now occupy, were scientific knowledge of the matters with 

 which they undertake to deal required of them. This is a 

 thorny subject, and one in which, however much one may 

 endeavour to speak in general terms, it is difficult to 

 avoid causing personal annoyance. Yet it seems to me 

 one which, believing as I do that it is of most urgent 

 importance, it is my duty as your President to press upon 

 the attention of the members of the British Association. 

 Probably an inquiry into and discussion of the neglect 

 of science and the questionable treatment of scientific men 



