The World's Greatest Books — Volume 15 — Science

by Unknown

Although he is a recent arrival on the earth, man has already made great progress, as compared with his ancestors the anthropoid apes, and we learn the same if we compare the higher and lower races of mankind. Yet there remain many disharmonies in the organisation of man, as, for instance, in his digestive system. A simple instance of this kind is furnished by the wisdom teeth. The complete absence of all four wisdom teeth has no influence on mastication, and their presence is very frequently the source of illness and danger. In man they are indeed rudimentary organs, providing another proof of our simian origin. The vermiform appendix, so frequently the cause of illness and death, is another rudimentary organ in the human body, together with the part of the digestive canal to which it is attached. The organ is a very old part of the constitution of mammals, and it is because it has been preserved long after its function has disappeared that we find it occurring in the body of man.

I believe that not only the appendix, but a very large part of the alimentary canal is superfluous, and worse than superfluous. It is, of course, of great importance to the horse, the rabbit, and some other mammals that live exclusively on grain and herbage. The latter part of the alimentary canal, however, must be regarded as one of the organs possessed by man and yet harmful to his health and life. It is the cause of a series of misfortunes. The human stomach also is of little value, and can easily be dispensed with, as surgery has proved. It is because we inherit our alimentary canal from creatures of different dietetic habits that it is impossible for us to take our nutriment in the most perfect form. If we were only to eat substances that could be almost completely absorbed, serious complications would be produced. A satisfactory system of diet has to make allowance for this, and in consequence of the structure of the alimentary canal has to include in the food bulky and indigestible materials, such as vegetables. Lastly, it may be noted that the instinct of appetite in man is largely aberrant. The widespread results of alcoholism show plainly the prevalent existence in man of a want of harmony between the instinct for choosing food and the instinct of preservation.

Far stronger than the social instinct, and far older, is the love of life and the instinct of self-preservation. Devices for the protection of life were developed long before the evolution of mankind, and it is quite certain that animals, even those highest in the scale of life, are unconscious of the inevitability of death and the ultimate fate of all living things. This knowledge is a human acquisition. It has long been recognised that the old attach a higher value to life than do the young. The instinctive love of life and fear of death are of importance in the study of human nature, impossible to over-estimate.

The instinctive love of life is preserved in the aged in its strongest form. I have carefully studied the aged to make certain on this point. It is a terrible disharmony that the instinctive love of life should manifest itself so strongly when death is felt to be so near at hand. Hence the religions of all times have been concerned with the problem of death.

III.—Science the Only Remedy for Human Disharmonies

In religion and in philosophy throughout their whole history we find attempts to combat the ills arising from the disharmonies of the human constitution.

Ancient and modern philosophies, like ancient and modern religions, have concerned themselves with the attempt to remedy the ills of human existence, and instinctive fear of death has always ensured that great attention has been paid to the doctrine of immortality.

Science, the youngest daughter of knowledge, has begun to investigate the great problems affecting humanity. Her first steps, taken along the lines first clearly laid down by Bacon, were slow and halting. But medical science has lately made great progress, and has gone very far to control disease, especially in consequence of the work of Pasteur. It is said that science has failed because, for instance, tuberculosis persists, but tuberculosis is propagated not because of the failure of science, but because of the ignorance and stupidity of the population. To diminish the spread of tuberculosis, of typhoid fever, of dysentery, and of many other diseases, it is necessary only to follow the rules of scientific hygiene without waiting for specific remedies.

Science offers us much hope also when it is directed to the study of old age and the phenomena which lead to death.

Man, who is the descendant of some anthropoid ape, has inherited a constitution adapted to an environment very different from that which now surrounds him. He is possessed of a brain very much more highly developed than that of his ancestors, and has entered on a new path in the evolution of the higher organisms. The sudden change in his natural conditions has brought about a large series of organic disharmonies, which become more and more acutely felt as he becomes more intelligent and more sensitive; and thus there has arisen a number of sorrows which poor humanity has tried to relieve by all the means in its power. Humanity in its misery has put question after question to science, and has lost patience at the slowness of the advance of knowledge. It has declared that the answers already found by science are futile and of little interest. But science, confident of its methods, has quietly continued to work. Little by little the answers to some of the questions that have been set have begun to appear.