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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIIL No. 1109 



excluded from their program. To se- 

 cure that they invited Professor, after- 

 wards Sir Daniel Wilson, of the Univer- 

 sity of Toronto, to give a course of lectures 

 on "Prehistoric Man." Professor Wilson 

 was eminent for his attainments ana 

 achievements in many fields, but he waa 

 chiefly known at the time as a pathmaker 

 in what were then the trackless wilds of 

 the earliest history of our race, and, there- 

 fore, the selection of him as a lecturer on 

 the subject could not have been more aptly 

 made. It was a fortunate selection from 

 another point of view. His subject could 

 not be remotely associated with the war 

 then begun, but, had it been otherwise, his 

 habit of mind prevented him from alluding 

 to it in his lectures, and not even once in 

 his conversation during his stay in Wash- 

 ington did he indicate the slightest interest 

 in the great struggle. There were occa- 

 sions when he could have referred to it. 

 Frequently during the delivery of his lec- 

 tures the boom of cannon heard in the lec- 

 ture room — coming from across the Po- 

 tomac — punctuated his sentences. Ac- 

 cording to the late Dr. Otis T. Mason, who 

 was my informant on this subject, he left 

 as a memory of his visit a reputation for 

 mental detachment that was Olympic in its 

 character. 



This evening I appear before you in a 

 role which is in some respects parallel to 

 that filled by Sir Daniel Wilson on that oc- 

 casion, but there are in it contrasts also. 

 Your country, your nation is now at peace 

 and it is my country that is at war, en- 

 gaged in a struggle unparalleled in his- 

 tory. Canada has already played a part 

 and she is preparing to play a larger one. 

 She is to increase her army of 200,000 men 

 to half a million, that is, to train and arm 

 five men out of every twelve of the male 

 population between the ages of eighteen 



and forty-five. That will indicate the mag- 

 nitude of the task we have undertaken. 

 There can be no mistaking the seriousness 

 with which we regard what is before us. 

 Our young men are preparing to do their 

 duty and to pay the toll that may be ex- 

 acted. Daily through my laboratory win- 

 dows comes the sound of the drilling of 

 more than seventeen hundred men, which 

 goes on from morn to night on our univer- 

 sity lawn. We have already sent seven 

 hundred of our students and young gradu- 

 ates overseas on active service and we have 

 now a continually lengthening roll of honor 

 with its sad, yet noble, memories of those 

 whom age shall not weary nor the years 

 condemn. The end may be far off and the 

 future is dark and heavy with fate, but we 

 are going forward with the determination 

 that, though life will never again be as it 

 was in the joyous, carefree past, a new 

 world shall come into being as a compensa- 

 tion for the sacrifices that we are making 

 and are yet to make. We are certain above 

 all things of one result, and it is that this 

 war is forging on the anvil of destiny, in 

 the fierce furnace heat of the conflict, the 

 scattered, loosely-knit portions of our 

 Anglo-Celtic empire into an organization, 

 an instrument that shall be a guarantee of 

 happiness and liberty to countless millions 

 yet unborn. 



It is the thought of all these things 

 crowding in on my mind that prevents me 

 from adopting the absolutely detached, 

 Olympic mind that Sir Daniel Wilson dis- 

 played when your nation was being welded 

 into one in the furnace heat of the great 

 Civil War. I am not, however, going to 

 allow these thoughts to crowd out those 

 which it is my duty to express to you on 

 this occasion. I must look forward, as you 

 must also, to a time when the welter of 

 baleful hatred and paleolithic fury of the 



