September 20, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



357 



be reckoned by months rather than by 

 years. 



The development of the continent of 

 North America has been one of the won- 

 ders of the history of the world, and we on 

 this side of the Atlantic almost hold our 

 breath as we try to realize the material 

 wealth and splendor and the ardent intel- 

 lectual and social progress that have 

 turned the United States into an imperial 

 nation. But we know what has happened 

 to the American bison. We know the 

 danger that threatens the pronghorn, one 

 of the most isolated and interesting of liv- 

 ing creatures, the Virginian deer, the mule- 

 deer and the bighorn sheep. Even in the 

 wide recesses of Canada, the bighorn, the 

 caribou, the elk, the wapiti, the white 

 mountain goat and the bears are being 

 rapidly driven back by advancing civiliza- 

 tion. In South America less immediate 

 danger seems to threaten the jaguar and 

 maned wolf, the tapirs and ant-eaters and 

 sloths, but the energy of the rejuvenated 

 Latin races points to a huge encroachment 

 of civilization on wild nature at no distant 

 date. 



You will understand that I am giving 

 examples and not a catalogue even of 

 threatened terrestrial mammals. I have 

 said nothing of the aquatic carnivores, 

 nothing of birds or of reptiles or of batra- 

 chians and fishes. And to us who are zool- 

 ogists, the vast destruction of invertebrate 

 life, the sweeping out, as forests are 

 cleared and the soil tilled, of innumerable 

 species that are not even named or de- 

 scribed, is a real calamity. I do not wish to 

 appeal to sentiment. Man is worth many 

 sparrows; he is worth all the animal popu- 

 lation of the globe, and if there were not 

 room for both, the animals must go. I will 

 pass no judgment on those who find the 

 keenest pleasure of life in gratifying the 

 primeval instinct of sport. I will admit 



that there is no better destiny for the lovely 

 plumes of a rare bird than to enhance the 

 beauty of a beautiful woman. I will ac- 

 cept the plea of those who prefer a well-es- 

 tablished trinomial to a moribund species. 

 But I do not admit the right of the present 

 generation to careless indifference or to 

 wanton destruction. Each generation is 

 the guardian of the existing resources of 

 the world; it has come into a great inherit- 

 ance, but only as a trustee. We are learn- 

 ing to preserve the relics of early civiliza- 

 tions, and the rude remains of man 's primi- 

 tive arts and crafts. Every civilized na- 

 tion spends great sums on painting and 

 sculpture, on libraries and museums. Liv- 

 ing animals are of older lineage, more per- 

 fect craftsmanship and greater beauty than 

 any of the creations of man. And al- 

 though we value the work of our fore- 

 fathers, we do not doubt but that the gen- 

 erations yet unborn will produce their own 

 artists and writers, who may equal or sur- 

 pass the artists and writers of the past. 

 But there is no resurrection or recovery of 

 an extinct species, and it is not merely that 

 here and there one species out of many is 

 threatened, but that whole genera, fam- 

 ilies and orders are in danger. 



Now let me turn to what is being done 

 and what has been done for the preserva- 

 tion of fauna. I must begin by saying, and 

 this was one of the principal reasons for 

 selecting the subject of my address, that 

 we who are professional zoologists, syste- 

 matists, anatomists, embryologists and stu- 

 dents of general biological problems, in this 

 country at least, have not taken a suffi- 

 ciently active part in the preservation of 

 the realm of nature that provides the rea- 

 son for our existence. The first and most 

 practical step of world-wide importance 

 was taken by a former president of the 

 British Association, the late Lord Salis- 

 bury, one of the few in the long roll of 



