612 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 381. 



which lead up to susceptibility to a given 

 disease, then we shall have gone a very long 

 way toward pointing out to the practical 

 man the methods by which he will be able 

 to avoid bringing about those specific 

 changes which end in disease. It is cer- 

 tainly entirely within the bounds of the 

 possible to know definitely just what par- 

 ticular changes lead to disease, i. e., tend to 

 invite a given parasite, or a given degen- 

 eration, and, knowing these, to put the 

 plant or animal under such conditions as 

 to food, light, air, etc., as will lead to the 

 development of coiinter changes tending to 

 ward off disease. A beginning has already 

 been made, but much remains to be done, 

 and a more inviting field of research does 

 not anywhere lie open to the young and 

 earnest experimenter. 



The so-called ' practical man ' has gone 

 about as far as he can go and must have 

 help from the technical and laboratory 

 man. Personally, the speaker has no sym- 

 pathy with that line of thinldng that would 

 hold the pathologist to the narrowest kind 

 of experimental or field work, or which 

 requires him to make bricks without straw. 

 Of course, I mean bulletins without new 

 discoveries to put in them. Nothing is 

 gained by repeated threshing of old straw, 

 and time, the most precious of all things, 

 is lost. Haphazard experimenting is not 

 science. Every decade will not be fortu- 

 nate enough to stumble on a Bordeaux mix- 

 ture. The trained pathologist should be 

 given plenty of time and the largest lib- 

 erty, and allowed to work out his own 

 salvation as best he can. This he must do 

 very largely by experimental devices, and 

 he certainly will never be able to get very 

 far without a thorough technical training 

 and use of the exact methods of the labora- 

 tory, or, as I have already pointed out, 

 without chemical Imowledge and much as- 

 sistance from the chemist and physicist. I 

 Avould not disparage field work. It is right 



as far as it goes, and I think every patholo- 

 gist ought to have a thorough acquaintance 

 with diseases as they occur in the field ; but 

 a man may work all his life in the field and 

 never get beyond a rule of thumb, if he 

 does not also have that technical training 

 which is usually acquired only in the labo- 

 ratory. The pathologist must be able to see 

 all that the practical man sees, and a great 

 deal more. In other words he must not 

 only see that things go on in a certain way 

 in the field, but he must also be able to 

 probe beneath the surface and determine 

 why. It is then, often, not difficult for him 

 to make nature conform to some other and 

 better plan whereby harvests are saved and 

 the huugry are fed. ^rwin F. Smith. 

 U. S. Department of Agricultuee. 



TBE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF LEGISLATION 

 OOVERNINQ THE LOBSTER INDUSTRY.* 



CAUSES OF THE DECLINE. 



The causes of the growing scarcity and 

 the yearly diminishing average size of the 

 lobsters caught are: (1) The natural de- 

 mand, arising from an increasing popula- 

 tion. This increased demand has not been 

 met by a correspondingly increased source 

 of supply. (2) The existing laws, for the 

 reason that the destruction of adults has 

 been permitted. The present laws, with 

 their practical difficulties of enforcement, 

 have had an adequate trial. The decline 

 of the lobster industry demonstrates that 

 these laws have proved inefficient for in- 

 creasing or even for maintaining the sup- 

 ply. The chief defect of the present laws 

 seems to lie in permitting the destruction 

 of adults. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR REMEDIAL LEGISLATION. 



Of the suggestions for legislation to 

 check this decline, seven, either singly or in 



* Abstract of a 'Report ' to the Massachusetts 

 Commissioners of Fisheries and Game, and pub- 

 lished in their 'Annual Report' for 1901 (Public 

 Document No. 25 ) . 



