MAN IN ALL HIS ASPECTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22402, 24 April 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

MAN IN ALL HIS ASPECTS

J)R. ALEXIS CARREL is popularly known as the scientist who, 24 years ago, conferred immortality on a bit of flesh. It lives, pulses and grows in a nourishing solution in the Rockefeller Instituto for Medical Research in New York. If he is a wizard of experimental surgery and a Nobel prize-winner, probably knowing more of man in all his aspects than any one else now living, Dr. Carrel is also by 'iray of being a philosopher, as ho shows im hik book, "Man the Unknown." In: this work he indicates briefly and ir simple language all that is known of man as a physical, mental and moral hnng and how little that knowledge amounts to, how much has yet to be disc overed and explained. "The only claim of this book," says Dr. Carrel modestly, "is to put at everyone's disposal an ensemble of scientific data concerning the human beings of our time. We are beginning to realise the weakness of our civilisation. Many ivant to shake off the dogmas imposed on them by modern society. ' "This book has been written for them, and also for Ihose who are bold enough to understand the necessity, not only of mental, political and social charges, but of the overthrow of industrial civilisation a::id the advent of another conception o;i human progress. This book is, therefore, dedicated to all whose everyday task is the rearing of children, the formation or the guidance of tho individual. To school teachers, hygienists, physicians, clergymen, social workers, professors, judges, army officers, engineers, economist's, politicians, industrial leaders. "Also to l;hose who are interested in the mere knowledge of our body and mind. In short, to every man and every woman,. It is offered as a simple account of fficts revealed about human beings by scientific observation."

Scientist's Exposition and Warning

From facts Dr. Carrel proceeds to the grave lessons to bo rend from them. The breadth of his grasp is matched by the depth of his probing and tho earnestness with wjiich ho counsels rol'orm, tho renovation or remaking or humankind, if man is to save his civilisation and his very soul. An idea of tho trend of the author's argument may be gathered from the following excerpts: —"Despite the immense hopes which humanity has placed in modern civilisation, such a civilisation has failed in developing men of sufilcient intelligence and audacity to guide it along tho dangerous road on which it is stumbling; "Human beings have not grown bo rapidly as the institutions sprung from their brains. It is chiefly the intellectual and moral deficiencies of the tical leaders, and their ignorance, which endanger modern nations. We miißt ascertain how the new mode of life will influence the future of tho race. _ _ And again • • . ''Wo aro tho victims of the backwardness of the sciences of life over those of matter, The only possible remedy for this evil is a much more profound knowledge of ourselves. Such a knowledge will enable us to understand by what mechanisms modern existence affects our consciousness and our body. We shall thus learn how to adapt ourselves to our surroundings, and how to change them, should a revolution become indis]>ensable. "In bringing to light our true nature, our potentialities, and the way to actualise them, this science will give to us the explanation of our physiological weakening, and of our moral and intellectual diseases. We have no other means of learning the inexorable rules of our organic and spiritual activities, of distinguishing the prohibited from the lfiwful, of realising that we are not free to modify, according to our fancy, otir environment, and ourselves. Sinco the natural conditions of existence have been destroyed by modern civilisation, the science of man has become tho most necessary of all sciences." "Mnn, the Unknown," by Alexis Carrel. (Angus and Robertson).