XI

THE ORGANIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH


The claims of scientific research on the public were never more
forcibly urged than in Professor Ray Lankester's recent Romanes
Lecture before the University of Oxford. Man is here eloquently
pictured as Nature's rebel, who, under conditions where his great
superior commands "Thou shalt die," replies "I will live." In
pursuance of this determination, civilized man has proceeded so
far in his interference with the regular course of Nature that he
must either go on and acquire firmer control of the conditions, or
perish miserably by the vengeance certain to be inflicted on the
half-hearted meddler in great affairs. This rebel by every step
forward renders himself liable to greater and greater penalties,
and so cannot afford to pause or fail in one single step. One of
Nature's most powerful agencies in thwarting his determination to
live is found in disease-producing parasites. "Where there is one
man of first-rate intelligence now employed in gaining knowledge
of this agency, there should be a thousand. It should be as much
the purpose of civilized nations to protect their citizens in this
respect as it is to provide defence against human aggression."

It was no part of the function of the lecturer to devise a plan
for carrying on the great war he proposes to wage. The object of
the present article is to contribute some suggestions in this
direction; with especial reference to conditions in our own