Daedalus : $b or, Science and the futureHaldane, J. B. S. (John Burdon Sanderson)
Philosophy
Daedalus : $b or, Science and the future
Haldane, J. B. S. (John Burdon Sanderson)
Biology; Science
I suggest then that biology will probably be applied on lines roughly
resembling the above. There are perhaps equally great possibilities
in the way of the direct improvement of the individual, as we come
to know more of the physiological obstacles to the development of
different faculties. But at present we can only guess at the nature of
these obstacles, and the line of attack suggested in the myth is the
one which seems most obvious to a Darwinian. We already know however
that many of our spiritual faculties can only be manifested if certain
glands, notably the thyroid and sex-glands, are functioning properly,
and that very minute changes in such glands affect the character
greatly. As our knowledge of this subject increases we may be able,
for example, to control our passions by some more direct method than
fasting and flagellation, to stimulate our imagination by some reagent
with less after-effects than alcohol, to deal with perverted instincts
by physiology rather than prison. Conversely there will inevitably
arise possibilities of new vices similar to but even more profound than
those opened up by the pharmacological discoveries of the 19th century.
The recent history of medicine is as follows. Until about 1870
medicine was largely founded on physiology, or, as the Scotch called
it “Institutes of medicine”. Disease was looked at from the point of
view of the patient, as injuries still are. Pasteur’s discovery of the
nature of infectious disease transformed the whole outlook, and made
it possible to abolish one group of diseases. But it also diverted
scientific medicine from its former path, and it is probable that,
were bacteria unknown, though many more people would die of sepsis
and typhoid, we should be better able to cope with kidney disease
and cancer. Certain diseases such as cancer are probably not due to
specific organisms, whilst others such as phthisis are due to forms
which are fairly harmless to the average person, but attack others for
unknown reasons. We are not likely to deal with them effectually on
Pasteur’s lines, we must divert our view from the micro-organism to the
patient. Where the doctor cannot deal with the former he can often keep
the patient alive long enough to be able to do so himself. And here he
has to rely largely on a knowledge of physiology. I do not say that a
physiologist will discover how to prevent cancer. Pasteur started life
as a crystallographer. But whoever does so is likely at least to make
use of physiological data on a large-scale.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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