toward nature and life,
and contributing to human comfort and human welfare. But the greatest
accomplishment always in the development of science is its effect on
the mental processes of humanity, stimulating thought and changing the
attitude of mind toward life.

_Science and War_.--It is a travesty on human progress, a social
paradox, that war and science go hand in hand. On one side are all of
the machines of destruction, the battleships, bombing-planes, huge
guns, high explosives, and poisonous gases, products of scientific
experiment and inventive genius, and on the other ambulances,
hospitals, medical and surgical care, with the uses of all medical
discoveries. The one seeks destruction, the other seeks to allay
suffering; one force destroys life, the other saves it. And yet they
march forth under the same flag to conquer the enemy. It is like the
conquest of the American Indians by the Spaniards, in which the warrior
bore in one hand a banner of the cross of Christ and in the other the
drawn sword.

War has achieved much in forcing people into national unity, in giving
freedom to the oppressed and protecting otherwise helpless people, but
in the light of our ideals of peace it has never been more than a cruel
necessity, and, more frequently, a grim, horrible monster. Chemistry
and physics and their discoveries underlying the vast material
prosperity of moderns have contributed much to the mechanical and {470}
industrial arts and increased the welfare and happiness of mankind.
But when war is let loose, these same beneficent sciences are worked
day and night for the rapid destruction of man. All the wealth built
up in the passing years is destroyed along with the lives of millions
of people.

Out of the gloom of the picture proceeds one ray of beneficent light,
that of the service rendered by the discoveries of medical science and
surgical art. The discoveries arising from the study of anatomy,
physiology, bacteriology, and neurology, with the use of anaesthetics
and antiseptics in connection with surgery, have made war less horrible
and suffering more endurable. Scientists like Pasteur, Lister, Koch,
Morton, and many others brought forth from their laboratories the
results of their study for the alleviation of suffering.

Yet it seems almost incredible that with all of the horrid experiences
of war, an enterprise that no one desires, and which the great majority
of the world deplore, should so long