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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1077 



microscope (about 1665), by Leeuwen- 

 hoek's discovery of protozoa (1675) and 

 indeed of bacteria (1687), and continued 

 by a succession of unselfish men whose 

 names are as household words to all biolo- 

 gists, had led up naturally to the mighty 

 contributions of Pasteur, Lister and Koch 

 in bacteriology. Then followed, logically, 

 the investigations of Reed and others upon 

 yellow fever infection, and of Laveran, 

 Manson and Ross upon malarial infection. 

 Except for such voluntary tests as were 

 made at the peril of their lives by Doctors 

 Lazear and Carroll in Cuba in the year 

 1900, in which Lazear paid the extreme 

 penalty of death from yellow fever, and 

 for the tests made by many other volun- 

 teers, especially in Italy, as to malaria, in 

 order to determine the precise conditions 

 under which certain mosquitoes transmit 

 these diseases, the canal would not be com- 

 plete to-day. Our government might not, 

 in fact, have started upon its construction ; 

 or, if the government had started blindly 

 to lead the blind, there would have been 

 failure as miserable as that recorded by the 

 French canal company, and for the same 

 reason. We forget unpleasant facts 

 quickly ; for example : that of thirty-six 

 brave French nurses who came together 

 to the canal zone, only twelve returned to 

 France; that out of eighteen ambitious 

 young French engineers who crossed the 

 Atlantic on the same ship for service on the 

 canal, only one was alive at the end of 

 thirty days; and that the laborers died by 

 the thousands. The project of construct- 

 ing the canal was surrendered to an un- 

 known enemy. Let us assume, however, 

 that such sacrifices had prevailed in their 

 purpose and that the canal had been com- 

 pleted in accordance with the engineering 

 plans. "With malaria and yellow fever still 

 ruling in the canal zone, and with the zone 

 as a center of infection for all ports of the 



Atlantic and the Pacific, would a completed 

 canal be a valued asset to commerce, or 

 would it be a constant menace and a nui- 

 sance? Let Memphis and Havana and 

 New Orleans answer. A grateful people 

 could worthily erect by the Golden Gate a 

 monument to Lazear, who gave all that he 

 had to make the construction of the canal 

 possible, and to make the completed canal 

 of permanent value. 



The minds of all thoughtful people are 

 dwelling daily upon another great appli- 

 cation of science — the European and world- 

 wide war. During the past twelve months 

 the resources of the leading European na- 

 tions have been applied with the utmost 

 intensity to purposes of destruction— to 

 turning the hands of civilization backward. 

 The most recent discoveries in science and 

 the latest inventions are utilized in dealing 

 death to the foe, from the air, from the 

 land, from the sea, and from under the sea. 

 It is a fact that the efiiciency of the engines 

 of death in all nations is measured by the 

 state of science in those nations. By way 

 of comment upon this lamentable truth, 

 what shall we who advocate the advance- 

 ment of science say for the faith that is in 

 us? The prostitution of science to the 

 killing and crippling of men is indeed an 

 ugly fact, but its results are negligible in 

 comparison with the daily ministrations of 

 science to the people's needs. A conflagra- 

 tion may bum a great city ; but the inhab- 

 itants of that city do not ask that fire, the 

 most useful servant of the human race, 

 shall be banished from their daily lives. 

 The remarkable advance in the civilization 

 of the leading nations during the past four 

 centuries has been due, chiefly, to the 

 hourly and daily influences of accurate 

 knowledge and scientific method; and this 

 advance has been made not by virtue of, 

 but in spite of, wars and the implements of 

 warfare. In this connection, let us note 



