June 13, 1907J 



NA TURE 



155 



ordinary duty are often covered with decorations in 

 i.-(>nsct|iience, tlic men whose exceptional work will 

 .il'lrct the lives of millions now and in the future arc 

 not considered ffoud enough. Even in the medical 

 profession it is f;enerally the practitioner, who is 

 already rewarded by his fees, r.'iiher ih.m the 

 pioneer, who is lucl<y if he is not ruined, who re- 

 ceives most of the public recofjnition. 1 m.iy add 

 ih.it there are cases where men have actuallv suffered 

 for their investifjntions. Many years afjo, Kinj,', of 

 Madras, succeeded in preparing a good vaccine from 

 a calf inoculated with variola, but was immediately 

 accused of trying to disseminate small-pox, was de- 

 prived of his appointjuent, and was not reinstated 

 without strong efforts on the part of his friends. 

 More recently, HaffUine, in spite of his immense ser- 

 vices, lost his appointment iDecause some c.-ises of 

 tetanus poisoning wr^re attributed to his plague pro- 

 phylactic; and still remains out of emplovmen(, 

 although it has been clearly proved that the disaster 

 w.is not possibly due to him or to his laboratory. The 

 fact is that the public has little sense of the value of 

 scientific investigations, and absolutely no sense of 

 gratitude towards those who carry them out, usu.-illy 

 at the cost of much trouble and expense to themselves. 



The obvious retribution for all this childish un- 

 wisdom is that the public itself suffers on an enor- 

 mous scale — millions sicken or die from diseases 

 which a little more investigation and scientific 

 administration would probably bring under compara- 

 tively easy contrf)l. Perhaps the most dramatic 

 example of this was the terrible outbreak of plague 

 in India in i8c)6. The people besotted with supersti- 

 tions, the sanitary organisation insufficiently de- 

 veloped on its scientific side, and the Government 

 knowing nothing of these matters and too weak to 

 exert the necessary discipline, were caught unprepared. 

 .Although the disease had been raging for two years 

 previously in Hong Kong, the authorities made no suf- 

 ficient arrangements to exclude it from India, or to 

 detect and suppress it should it effect an entry. When 

 it came it was allowed to remain undetected for 

 months, and was then met only with vacillating 

 counsels and a painful feebleness of action. Only 

 those who are utterly ignorant of the manner, and the 

 only manner, in which epidemics must be fought 

 against will attempt to justify such a story of in- 

 eptitude. The result for India alone has been the loss 

 of more than four millions of lives, and the people 

 are still dying of plague at the rate of seventy-five 

 thousand a week ! 



In i.S(:)7-g we ascerlaincd definitelv that the malarial 

 infection was produced by the bites of mosquitoes, and 

 this discovery immediately disclosed several methods 

 of prevention, such as drainage of the breeding 

 pools of the insects, protection from bites by means 

 of g^auze, and so on. Considering that the disease is 

 .•I most serious, ubiquitous, and continuous pest in 

 most tropical countries, causing an untold amount of 

 inconvenience, expense, sickness and death, we had 

 a right to expect that the new knowledge would be 

 immediately acted ujjon everywhere for the protection 

 of the public, as all Governments possess s.-mitary 

 fifficials and funds specially appointed and allotted for 

 such work. I have been watching the progress of 

 events ever since — with mingled feelings of amuse- 

 ment and dismay. What a tragi-comedy could be 

 written on the subject ! There were the officials, 

 there were the funds, there was the knowled-re ; but 

 to persuade the first to applv the second for the pur- 

 poses of the third was often an impossibility. They 

 said they had no funds, that thcv did not accept the 

 proofs, that there was no malaria in their district, 

 th.'it there were no mosquitoes — anv and every excuse. 

 The simple truth was that they did not like the 



NO. 1963, VOL. 76] 



trouble. Years passed, bui lliile or nothing was 

 done. The officials rem.-iiji. d in undisturbed posses- 

 sion of their leisure. We wr^.le, lectured, demon- 

 strated, undertook expeditions, sent up deput.itions, 

 interviewed ministers; but even now, after nearly ten 

 years, but little has been accomplished compared with 

 what might have been done from the first had our 

 Governments possessed those essentials of good 

 administration, science, and discijiline. One a.sks 

 why, if the .Stat<' thinks i( worth while to employ 

 sanit.-iry departments at all, it does not see that they 

 do the work for which they are paid? 



Probably a similar state of things jjrevails in most 

 departments of our administr.-ition. Look, for in- 

 stance, ;it our large cities with their unspeakable 

 slums_ filled with pale, dirty, ;uid unhealthy people 

 lounging round th(' innumerable public houses, or at 

 the crowded mud hovels of the Indian towns — a con- 

 stant reproach to our systems of municipal manage- 

 ment. Then what clearer evidence of the increasing 

 irrationalism, irresolution, and weakness of party 

 government could we have than that given bv the 

 successive Vaccination .'Vets, culmin.ating in the ridicu- 

 lous " conscientious objection " and " statutory de- 

 claration"; or by the appointment of a Roval Com- 

 mission to consider the utility of experiments on 

 animals— which is like appointing one to consider the 

 truth of the multiplication table? Or, going into 

 another field, we shall find that military men make 

 precisely similar complaints about want of science 

 and discipline in regard to their department, com- 

 plaints which are certainly causing irrave uneasiness 

 among the inore thoughtful of our citizens. 



To what is all this attributable? In official life it 

 is probably due to the fact that even notorious in- 

 efficiency does not always retard advancement, nor 

 even notorious merit accelerate it, with the result 

 that the upper grades are often filled with men of no 

 ideas who have reached their position, not by public 

 services, but by seniority, wire-pulling, or even by the 

 mere inertia of their mediocrity, (joing still higher, 

 it is attributable, I think, to our system of party 

 government, l)ec.ause the ministers who should be con- 

 stantly engaged in a r.ition.-il Sl.atc with the organi- 

 sation and conduct of their departments are, under 

 parly government, constantly engaged in that party 

 warfare which, when carried to the present excess, 

 becomes a mere idle game played for the amusement 

 of the mob. Lastly, it is due to our defective public 

 education, which lays too much stress on literary, 

 philological, and dogmatic trifles, and not enough on 

 the hard facts and still harder methods of science, so 

 that the whole n;ilion is lending to become irrational 

 in thought and unpractical in action. We frequently 

 have to look in vain for that wise and strict organi- 

 sation without which the vast machine of the .State 

 cannot perform its proper work. We hear only the 

 jangling of wheels and cranks out of gear, and the 

 cries of the inexpert engineers who think to mend 

 matters by belabouring each other. 



'ITiose who have not considered the subject from my 

 point of view will certainly think that there is too 

 much black in this picture, but 1 could easily cite in- 

 numerable more instances, and, personally, have no 

 doubt of my main proposition, that British administra- 

 tion is generally not scientific enoj."h and not strict 

 enough — it does not sufficiently seek knowledge or 

 enforce action. But I do not, of course, deny that it 

 possesses great virtues. It is imperturbable, scrupulous, 

 just, and pure, and, I may add, is rapidly beginning 

 to attach more importance to science. For example, 

 India, which formerly spent, I sunpo.se, Ic'ss than one- 

 thousandth part of the medical budget on investiga- 

 tion, is now spending perhaps as much as a hundredth 

 part. More laboratories have been equipped, and 



