44 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1124 



worthy of more than passing mention — 

 namely, that which arises from the relation 

 of modern chemistry to hygiene and medi- 

 cine. Already your attention has been 

 called to the indisputable fact that the 

 human body is, physiologically considered, 

 a chemical machine. For this reason, fu- 

 ture knowledge of chemical structure and 

 of organic reaction may perhaps revolu- 

 tionize medicine as completely as it was 

 revolutionized by the devoted labors of 

 Pasteur — not by doing away with his price- 

 less acquisitions of knowledge, but rather 

 by amplifying them. Chemistry may show 

 how germs of disease do their deadly work 

 through the production of subtle organic 

 poisons, and how these poisons may be com- 

 bated by antitoxins; for both poisons and 

 antitoxins are complex chemical substances 

 of a nature not beyond the possible reach of 

 chemical methods already known. In that 

 far-off but not inconceivable day when the 

 human body may be understood from a 

 chemical standpoint, we shall no longer be 

 unable to solve the inscrutable problems 

 which to-day puzzle even the most learned 

 hygienist and physician. Is not a part, at 

 least, of the tragedy of disease a relic of 

 barbarism? A race which could have put 

 as much energy and ingenuity into the 

 study of physiological chemistry as man- 

 kind has put into aggressive warfare might 

 have long ago banished many diseases by 

 discovering the chemical abnormalities 

 which cause them. 



May not the study of subtler questions, 

 such as the nature of heredity, also lead us 

 finally into the field of chemistry in our 

 search for the ultimate answer? Even psy- 

 chology may some time need chemical assist- 

 ance, since the process of thinking and the 

 transmission of nervous impulse are both 

 inextricably associated with chemical 

 changes in nervous tissue ; and even memory 

 may be due to some subtle chemical effect. 



In the realm of thought there can be no 

 question of the blessed service already per- 

 formed by science in dispelling grim super- 

 stitions which haunted older generations 

 with deadly fear. 



In brief, more power is given mankind 

 through the discoveries of chemistry. This 

 power has many beneficent possibilities, but 

 it may be used for ill as well as for good. 

 Science has recently been blamed by super- 

 ficial critics, but she is not at fault if her 

 great potentialities are distorted to serve 

 malignant ends. Is not this calamity due 

 rather to the fact that the spiritual en- 

 lightenment of humanity has not kept pace 

 with the progress of science ? The study of 

 nature can lead an upright and humane 

 civilization ever higher and higher to 

 greater health and comfort and a sounder 

 philosophy, but that same study can teach 

 the ruthless and selfish how to destroy more 

 efficiently than to create. The false attitude 

 toward war, fostered by tradition and by 

 the glamor of ancient strife, is doubtless one 

 of the influences which have held back man- 

 kind from a wider application of the Golden 

 Rule. 



There is, in truth, no conflict between the 

 ideals of science and other high ideals of 

 human life. With deep insight, a poetic 

 thinker on life's problems, in the opening 

 lines of a sonnet, has said : 



Tear not to go where fearless Science leads, 



Who holds the keys of God. What reigning light 



Thine eyes discern in that surrounding night 



Whence we have come, . . . 



Thy soul will never find that Wrong is Eight. 



Our limited minds are confined in a 

 limited world, with immeasurable space on 

 all sides of us. Our brief days are as noth- 

 ing compared with the inconceivable aeons 

 of the past, and the prospect of illimitable 

 ages to come. Both infinity and eternity 

 are beyond our mental grasp. "We know 

 that we can not hope to understand all the 



