VALUE OF BIOLOGY

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 190, 10 May 1934, Page 4

VALUE OF BIOLOGY

Advantages of Its Study PRACTICAL IMPORTANCE The value of a knowledge of biological problems was stressed by Mr. G. V. Wild last evening iu an address on “Pre-Uniyersit.v Biology” delivered at a meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society. Mr. Wild said that the application of the discoveries of men such as Morgan, Bateson, Punnett, Giew, Faraday, Cavendish, Priestley and Pasteur to the human problems of population, heredity, sterility and disease, in short, the amelioration or deterioration of the human stock, forced itself upon the attention. Consider the Russian post-war experiments and the more recent German sterilisation law, he continued. Evolution became a matter of academic interest, scarcely discussed in the turmoil of thought that followed each fresh discovery, Moro and mot© was learned of physiology and the structure and development of the human body, of the digestion and absorption of food, of glands and their secretions. The Plunket system was one practical development—why should not girls be taught its fundamentals, and perhaps all that it Implied?—the survival of the unflttest. the population Increase of congested areas and countries, and the repercussions of social and economic struggles. The advances of physical sciences had given us the industrial -problem of mechanisation, standardisation, rationalisation, technocracy, the diminution of labour and the increase of leisure. Biological advances had given equally far-reaching problems.

Thus it had readily come to be appreciated that a knowledge of biological problems was of considerable importance to man. For the great majority of the community, real progress along safe and sound lines ceased when the schoolroom was left behind. Were it otherwise, were there adequate and universally approved provision. for' adult education, there would not be such a rush to crowd Into the primary and post-primary syllabuses far more than the teachers could cope with lu the time. Biology was being pushed forward as a candidate, for this favour, and the reasons he would give why It should be included as a subject in a complete education were as follow: — In .the first place he should say biology had a claim because it affected the individual. In the various sub‘branehes, anatomy, physiology and hygiene, much could be learned of tho structure and functions of the. individual, of his bodily development and dally needs, of parental care and ancestral endowments, of material blessings and spiritual gifts. Secondly, biology affected the community in tho provision of food and clothing, in the supply nnd preservation of meat and milk, in the purification of water and ■air and sanitary services, in the conquest, or conversely tho dissemination, of diseases, in man’s relations with his fellow men.

Thirdly, but.lie thought by no means tbe least important, biology affected the race, Mr. Wiki added. Possibly there had been little real progress in the human species for 19,000 years; certainly in material progress marvellous strides had been made, but judged by certain standards the race had probably deteriorated throughout the centuries. Yet we had the knowledge and power, to effect n transformation in the human race,' and to produce as diversely useful types as had been done among domestic animals. The teaching. of biology could give some glimmering of the possibilities already envisaged in literature.