Suppose the outer edge of
this ring fastened down on a table, while we take hold of the
inner edge and stretch it upward and outward over the outer edge
until we flatten the whole ring on the table, upside down, with
the inner edge now the outer one. This motion would be as
inconceivable in "flat-land" as turning the ball inside out is to
us.
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.
Pages:
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229