400 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 769 



nervous paths, which will determine his 

 whole future conduct and the control of 

 his lower by his higher centers, so hard- 

 ship has acted as the integrator of nations. 

 It is possible that some such factor with 

 its attendant risks of extermination may- 

 still be necessary before we attain the uni- 

 fication of the British empire, which would 

 seem to be a necessary condition for its 

 future success. But if only our country- 

 men can read the lesson of evolution and 

 are endowed with sufficient foresight, there 

 is no reason why they should not, by as- 

 sociating themselves into a great commu- 

 nity, avoid the lesson of the rod. Such a 

 community, if imbued by a spirit of serv- 

 ice and guided by exact knowledge, 

 might be successful above all others. In 

 this community not only must there be 

 subordination of individual to communal 

 interests, but the behavior of the commu- 

 nity as a whole must be determined by 

 anticipation of events— i. e., by the system- 

 atized knowledge which we call science. 

 The universities of a nation must be like 

 the eyes of an animal, and the messages 

 that these universities have to deliver 

 must serve for the guidance and direction 

 of the whole community. 



This does not imply that the scientific 

 men, who compose the universities and are 

 the sense organs of the community, should 

 be also the rulers. The reactions of a 

 man or of a higher mammal are not deter- 

 mined immediately by impulses coming 

 from his eyes or ears, but are guided by 

 these in association with, and after they 

 have been weighed against, a rich web of 

 past experience, the organ of which is the 

 higher brain. It is this organ which, as 

 the statesman of the cell community, exer- 

 cises absolute control. And it is well that 

 those who predicate an absolute equality or 

 identity among all the units of a commu- 

 nity should remember that, although all 



parts of the body are active and have their 

 part to play in the common work, there is 

 a hierarchy in the tissues— different grades 

 in their value and in their conditions. 

 Thus every nutritional mechanism of the 

 body is subordinate to the needs of the 

 guiding cells of the brain. If an animal 

 be starved, its tissues waste; first its fat 

 goes, then its muscles, then its skeletal 

 structures, fiinally even the heart. The 

 brain is supplied with oxygen and nour- 

 ishment up to the last. When this, too, 

 fails, the animal dies. The leading cells 

 have first call on the resources of the 

 body. Their needs, however, are soon sat- 

 isfied, and the actual amount of food or 

 oxygen used by them is insignificant as 

 compared with the greedy demands of a 

 working muscle or gland cell. In like 

 manner every community, if it is to suc- 

 ceed, must be governed, and all its re- 

 sources controlled, by men with foreseeing 

 power and rich experience— i. e., with the 

 wisdom that will enable them to profit by 

 the teachings of science, so that every part 

 of the organism may be put into such a 

 condition as to do its optimum of work for 

 the community as a whole. 



At the present time it seems to me that, 

 although it is the fashion to acquiesce in 

 evolution because it is accepted by biolo- 

 gists, we do not sufficiently realize the im- 

 portance of this principle in our daily life, 

 or its value as a guide to conduct and 

 policy. It is probable that this doctrine 

 had more influence on the behavior of 

 thinking men in the period of storm and 

 controversy which followed its promulga- 

 tion fifty years ago, than it has at the pres- 

 ent day of lukewarm emotions and second- 

 hand opinions. Yet, according to their 

 agreement with biological laws, the politi- 

 cal theories of to-day must stand or fall. 

 It is true that in most of them the doc- 

 trine of evolution is invoked as supporting 



