August 18, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



225 



event, we are dangerously approaching biolog- 

 ical bankruptcy and a condition which if not 

 speedily mended will become more speedily be- 

 yond recourse. Even over and beyond such 

 earlier blunders as our methods of distribu- 

 tion and alienation of such national assets as 

 the public agricultural domain, mineral and 

 forest lands, the inconceivable slaughter of 

 the wandering herds of buffalo, elk, antelope 

 and deer, of the clouds of migratory birds on 

 land and the fleets of fish, birds and mammals 

 swimming in the sea, much of the capital of 

 this national wealth has been unwisely turned 

 into cash and reinvested in less stable and per- 

 manent form of property, and vast sums put 

 into non-productive and depreciating forms of 

 property. To render the future secure, a con- 

 siderable portion of the primary proceeds must 

 be again converted back into the original form 

 of investment in nature's laboratory. When 

 obliged to do this we see how difficult and 

 costly, even if not impossible, is the process, 

 and how woefully the capital has shrunk as a 

 result of ignorant and selfish manipulation. 



An illustration in a very broad sense is our 

 usual method of dealing with our rivers and 

 streams. The fundamental law of water is 

 that a stream may be used, but in such a man- 

 ner as not to impair its value to property on 

 the stream below. Yet " civilized " man's first 

 conception of a natural stream is that of a 

 sewer, provided by nature for use as such by 

 municipalities, corporations and individuals. 

 The ocean is falsely regarded as the proper 

 ultimate receptacle of all sorts of material 

 debris of civilization. The nest generation 

 will be convinced that vast sums have been 

 unwisely expended in construction of " trunk 

 lines of sewers to the ocean," not to mention 

 the cost to the state of the legislation neces- 

 sary, or of the prodigious waste of nitrogenous 

 material which is diverted from its immediate 

 useful purpose of nourishing vegetation on 

 land, and the irrevocable loss of other valuable 

 recoverable materials valuable in manufactur- 

 ing and in the arts. 



The immediate effects, however, of the bio- 

 logically and economically indefensible pres- 

 ent methods of disposal of manufacturing and 

 municipal wastes are destruction of fish life 



and menaces to the public health. I am of the 

 opinion that the annual waste of such mate- 

 rials in the little state of Massachusetts alone 

 results in the loss of at least $3,000,000 each 

 year to the manufacturers and citizens in sub- 

 stances recoverable at a relatively small cost. 

 In addition in that state at least $1,000,000 

 in potential food value could be annually pro- 

 duced in water now for that purpose made 

 valueless or worse, by pollution. There can be 

 no doubt that the present unsatisfactory con- 

 ditions in the oyster and fish business in gen- 

 eral are due to the false impressions of the 

 sanitary condition of fish and shell fish con- 

 veyed to the public mind by the appearance of 

 the shores as a result of our indefensible prac- 

 tises in the disposal of municipal and trade 

 waters. 



All this is directly connected with our fail- 

 ure to correlate our practises, whether federal, 

 state, municipal or individual, with the essen- 

 tial basic biological principles. Methods and 

 constructions must ultimately be devised and 

 executed to check this vast waste. 



As a nation and as individuals we have 

 failed to recognize and to utilize in adequate 

 measure the necessary and correct biological 

 bases for legislation, and though a beginning 

 has been made in many federal departments, 

 including notably among others the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture and the Bureau of Fish- 

 eries, progress elsewhere is still retarded and 

 handicapped by unfortunate precedents, by 

 prevalence of local or merely transient ex- 

 pediencies by amateur " near-statesmen " and 

 by personal opinions forcibly expounded by 

 those who have more enthusiasm or authority 

 than special information or training. In gen- 

 eral our state and federal governments are 

 open to severe arraignment for obvious fail- 

 ure to equitably and readily secure, to meet 

 required increased production, the transforma- 

 tion into property of those free goods still 

 held in that type of primitive communism 

 which was possible before the development of 

 an increasing population. With reckless haste 

 and too frequently dangerously close to cor- 

 rupt methods, we have seen the conversion 

 into private wealth of such public assets as 

 not only the forests, fish, birds and quadru- 



