596 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1172 



home and in the hapless countries for a 

 time at their mercy. Because of these 

 things we see men everywhere bowed down 

 and depressed as it becomes clearly demon- 

 strated that science, mental endowments 

 and education are no specifics against a 

 wicked heart. These things we really knew 

 before but refused to believe. They are 

 demonstrated to us now by appalling ex- 

 amples so that the whole thinking com- 

 munity has become so mentally and spirit- 

 ually depressed that one has great difficulty 

 in going about one's normal work, health 

 is damaged and continued research is a 

 matter of great difficulty. A nation of un- 

 usual opportunities, great mental endow- 

 ment and development in science seems to 

 have become the willing or at least easily 

 manipulated pawn in the hands of the un- 

 scrupulous statesman, "We have not for- 

 gotten that it was a chemist, Ostwald, in 

 the early days of the war, when he was act- 

 ing as a spokesman for Germany to men of 

 science throughout the world who was 

 quoted, when Germany was in the flush of 

 her initial victories over Belgium, as saying 

 the world had outgrown the idea of freedom 

 for little or weak peoples. 



War, therefore, is a universal mental de- 

 pressant and as such, alone, must damage 

 progress in science. It saps national energy 

 and material resources. It destroys the life 

 of the younger generation of scientists and, 

 in large part, the student material from 

 which the scientists of the future are re- 

 cruited. It interferes with systematic re- 

 search in many lines by mentally depressing 

 the workers, placing insuperable difficulties 

 in their path and at times by destroying 

 priceless work, records and literature. Cer- 

 tainly war is not desirable to science, even 

 if we could restrain our detestation of it 

 and all its works. 



Bitterly as we may condemn war, we 

 should be wrong, however, to claim that sci- 

 ence stagnated or declined in war time. 



Since war requires brains, science is of 

 course utilized, and since the demand is in- 

 exorable, science must produce, and when 

 science and engineering are producing, they 

 grow. We have come to learn that modern 

 war is a scientific business undertaking. 

 It involves the use of all vital human en- 

 deavors, and therefore to varying extent, of 

 all applied science. On the one hand, it in- 

 volves the utilization of medical science to 

 maintain physical efficiency and speedily 

 repair damage to the fighting machine. On 

 the other hand, it involves the utilization of 

 agricultural, physical and chemical science 

 in feeding and clothing the whole military 

 and naval establishment, and manufactur- 

 ing the equipment, armament and "con- 

 centrated energy" or explosives consumed 

 by the fighting force. It is stated that it 

 reqiiires three men in the shops to maintain 

 one man in the army and seven men for 

 one in the navy. It is evident therefore 

 that it is the applied portions of science 

 that are most used and hence that grow 

 most under war's influence. It is common 

 experience, however, that the stretching 

 into new domains and the striving for new 

 goals by applied science, enriches the feed- 

 ing ground of unapplied science and un- 

 covers fertile fields for the patient and 

 quiet research which follows and which 

 often becomes the very backbone of science 

 itself. These results are scarcely visible 

 and will not mature in any event, for years 

 after the war, so that we can see at present 

 little good effect upon unapplied science 

 and we feel quite certain that the reverse 

 influences have the upper hand. 



Although it would not be wise at present 

 even if we had the time to go into detail in 

 discussing this subject nor would it profit 

 j^ou particularly, yet it may be useful to 

 emphasize certain points of view which 

 come sharply to our attention when we at- 

 tempt to survey the field. 



