Febeuary 3, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



117 



time conquered wild beasts to sueli a degree 

 that in tlie more civilized temperate zone coun- 

 tries we give no thought to them, although in 

 some parts of India they are still a constant 

 menace to the ordinary man. But at the other 

 end of the biologic series are the much more 

 numerous and more dangerous micro-organ- 

 isms which assail us on every side. When all 

 the circumstances are favorable we can now 

 control insects, protozoans and bacteria, which 

 are the carriers or causes of many of our most 

 dreaded diseases. But it is a hard struggle to 

 dominate such scourges as plague, typhus, 

 cholera and yellow fever. They never sleep, 

 and if, like Russia to-day, a nation finds itself 

 temporarily unable to maintain the needed 

 precautions, its boasted control soon vanishes. 



We have learned to overcome the isolation 

 of space on land and sea, to move about more 

 rapidly than any other animal, to fly higher 

 than any bird has ever gone, and to maintain 

 summer heat in the coldest winters; but in 

 order to do so and by virtue of this expansion 

 of our activities, we are rapidly depleting the 

 earth's storehouse of materials. We are assured 

 by those who have most carefully studied the 

 subject that the liquid energy of petroleum 

 will not serve us adequately beyond this gen- 

 eration; copper for our wonderful electrical 

 systems should last somewhat longer; and coal 

 some centuries or even thousands of years. But 

 what is ten thousand years in the life of a 

 race? Other sources of energy are known and 

 we may yet learn to use them profitably; but it 

 is well to remember that the continuance of our 

 type of civilization on anything like its present 

 scale is absolutely contingent upon the suc- 

 cess of such attempts. It is not merely a hope 

 but a necessity, that should convince even the 

 dullest mind of the need of incessant and ex- 

 tensive research with such objects in view. 



We have organized manufacturing, trade 

 and conmierce to such an extent that millions 

 of people may now be supported in towns 

 and cities, and the average population per 

 square mile multiplied far beyond what was 

 possible only a few centuries ago. Through 

 the application of science we have almost 

 banished many diseases and have greatly re- 

 duced the usual death rate; and now we are 



hopefully attempting to do away with war. 

 Yet these achievements can hardly be said to 

 have rid us of ovu- problems, for a crop of 

 new ones has sprung up — the problems of the 

 feeble-minded, the degenerate, the insane — to 

 mention only a few of the most obvious. For 

 the old diseases, many of which have been part- 

 ly conquered, we have a great complementary 

 increase in cancer, pneumonia and various 

 functional and nervous ailments, which are 

 aggravated by the crowding, the stress, inten- 

 sity and sedentary nature of modern indus- 

 trial life. 



No doubt most of us believe that the alge- 

 braic sum of these gains and losses is a real 

 advance toward a better state of things. Per- 

 haps to question the lasting quality of this 

 advance may not be so presumptvious as we 

 usually have supposed. 



The entire history, not only of the human 

 race, but of its predecessors from the earliest 

 known times, has been marked by constantly 

 increasing complexity of bodily structure, 

 function and activity. This increase has not 

 been steady, but pulsating. Evidently we are 

 to-day witnessing an acceleration of the nor- 

 mal increase in the complexity of human re- 

 lations and action. As our modern civiliza- 

 tion becomes more and more specialized and 

 diversified, our relations to our environment 

 become more and more complex and our ad- 

 justments more delicate. One thousand years 

 ago, who cared whether economic depression 

 prevailed in countries across the sea; yet in 

 our present highly specialized condition such 

 matters have risen to paramount importance. 

 In the complexity of modern life wide-spread 

 hardship and loss are caused by the temporary 

 shutting down of a great electric system or by 

 the closing of the coal mines; while a general 

 railroad strike quickly brings on a paralysis 

 of activity that can not be endured for more 

 than a brief time without actual disaster. Yet 

 one hundred years ago not one of these prob- 

 lems existed. They would have been difftcult 

 even to imagine. 



The impetus of development seems always 

 to carry the process of specialization onward 

 without hesitation until a stage is finally 



