76 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1152 



dependently, and that we know nothing 

 about the inheritance of piety and free- 

 dom, either separately or in Germanic link- 

 age. The writer wishes also to apologize 

 for being compelled to point out that it is 

 not good biology to maintain that the ob- 

 lique eyes of the Chinese or Japanese are 

 an indication of an oblique character, or 

 that in a hybrid the "bad" qualities of the 

 parents are dominant over the "good" 

 ones. 



5. While the statements of the war en- 

 thusiasts will not be taken seriously by 

 those familiar with the methods and results 

 of experimental biology, the sad fact re- 

 mains that this pseudobiology has had at 

 least a share in the production of the trag- 

 edy which is being enacted in Europe. 

 For wars are impossible unless the masses 

 are aroused to a state of emotionalism and 

 fanaticism, and the pseudobiology of liter- 

 ateurs and politicians may serve this pur- 

 pose in the future as it has in the past. 

 The government has at last begun to real- 

 ize that it is its duty to protect the masses 

 from the medical quack. Your speaker is 

 of the opinion that the masses need equal 

 protection from the irresponsible literateur 

 or politician who makes it his business to 

 spread the seed of fanaticism and emotion- 

 alism by a claim of knowledge of biology 

 which he does not possess. The cure for 

 this form of pernicious mischief is the 

 spread of knowledge of the exact sciences 

 which will put an end to the business of the 

 pseudoscientist. 



Since at present the making of war is 

 left in the hands of the statesmen, it may 

 be well to mention at least that the exact 

 sciences have paved the way for the re- 

 placement of the present type of statesman- 

 ship by a new one; according to which 

 statesmanship consists in the application 

 of the results of the exact sciences to the 

 improvement of the lot of humanity. This 

 includes not only the technical but also the 



theoretical results of science, since these 

 theoretical results will free the minds from 

 all those forms of ignorance, superstition 

 and fanaticism which are the culture 

 medium of mob emotionalism. If we suc- 

 ceed in substituting for the present a new 

 type of statesmen, who are familiar with 

 and follow the development of the exact — 

 i. e., the experimental and quantitative — 

 sciences, and who are willing and capable 

 of applying the results of exact science to 

 the intellectual, moral, physical and eco- 

 nomical uplift of the masses, we shall at 

 least diminish the danger of war. 



Jacques Loeb 

 The Rockefeller Institute fob 

 Medical Eeseakch, 

 New York 



ASYMMETRIC SYNTHESES AND THEIR 



BEARING ON THE DOCTRINE 



OF VITALISM. II 



The fact that an asymmetric compound 

 prepared in the laboratory is always ob- 

 tained in the inactive form is in itself of no 

 great significance. As has been already 

 stated, the result is just what one would ex- 

 pect. It assumes its significance, however, 

 when taken in conjunction with the fact 

 that an asymmetric compound occurring in 

 nature, with very rare exceptions, exists in 

 the active form. In other words, it is the 

 difference between the results of the labora- 

 tory synthesis and those of nature that im- 

 part to this general subject its remarkable 

 interest. 



The view that the production of the ac- 

 tive forms of asymmetric compounds is 

 characteristic of living organisms was ad- 

 vanced first by Pasteur. The following 

 quotations are taken from his lecture de- 

 livered before the Chemical Society of Paris 

 in 1860. 



All artificial bodies and aU minerals have super- 

 posable images. Opposed to these are many or- 

 ganic substances (I might say nearly all, if I were 



