MODERN SCIENCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 21 December 1938, Page 9

MODERN SCIENCE

I i'o The Editori Sir,—Professor Ashby, Department of Botany, University of Sydney, tells us that a number of university professors of the Middle Ages engaged in a prolonged controversy regarding the number of teeth in the mouth of a horse The total could not possibly be a multiple of three, they said, because such a dispensation on the part of Nature would imply disrespect to the Trinity; nor could it be a multiple of seven, for God created the earth in six days and made the seventh a holy day. The long-drawn-out discussion was at last suddenly ended by a young student who

opened the mouth of a horse and count- | od its teeth. Although the learned j doctors at the Paris University would j not accept so crude and unconventional ! a solution of the problem, this metoj Phorical opening of the horse’s mouth j on the part of the enquiring student i himself marked an era in true scientific ' method. In Professor Ashby’s telling little illustration we find one of the reasons for scientific backwardness on the part of certain nations in particular directions. For example. China led the world in inventiveness during many centuries. She was weaving and selling silk to overseas markets a thousand j r ears before the birth of Christ; her tools of iron ' were sold in Rome two thousand years

ago and became famous throughout the then civilised world because of their superior quality; China invented printing from type; she invented gunpowder; she probably invented the mariner’s compass; she knew all about the conservation of soil fertility and also understood that every article of food possesses a medicinal and nutritive value, from “time immemorial.” For centuries the culture of Chnia was the equal of any modern western nation. In number of first-rate intellects, wealth of dominions, political organisation, literature, art, flood-control and soil conservation her record was magnificent. Why, then (asks Dr. Suter. Congress Librarian, Washington) did not China instead of Europe give birth to modern science? Suppose (he replies) that some two thousand years ago the examining authorities of the

Western world had established the history of Herodotus, the Odyssey of Homer, the moral and political writings of Aristotle, with some works in soothsaying as an authoritative canon to furnish the sole subject-matter for education and for entry into public service! In such case, modern science would still 6e waiting to experience its birth-pangs In Australia there is a team of five hundred modern biologists who are working to set agriculture and horticulture and fisheries on a democratically scientific footing. Leading members of this biological body—and in particular. Professor Ashby -are working to introduce the teaching of elementary biology into every primary school in the Commonwealth. It is one of t: e functions of education to initiate the young citizen into his traditions end inheritance without at the same time binding and shackling him to outworn methods. In Britain this aspect of education includes the legacies oi Greece and Rome; the history which surrounds the child in place-names, castles, etc.; and the technique of industry upon which politics and the hope of future welfare depend Now the tradition of Australia and New Zealand is the mastery of the land Animals and plants are woven into the life of every citizen, whether he realises it or not. Surely, then, it should be part of the responsibility of every citizen to "open »he horse’s n outh” for himself and to learn something of th. life and structure of plants, animals (including himself), and the soil. Any man *vho is entirely ignorant of the modern sciences of primary production cannot be said to be an educated person.—We are. etc . PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELFARE SOCIETY. Onehunga, 17th December.