MODERN SCIENCE

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20693, 31 December 1938, Page 14 (Supplement)

MODERN SCIENCE

■OPENING HORSE'S MOUTH’

INSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOLS PRIMARY PRODUCTION AIDS (By P.M.W.) 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 nf 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 nf Nature would imply disrespect to the Trinity; nor could if he a multiple of seven, for God created the earth .n 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 counted its teeth. Although the learned doctors .at the Paris University would not accept so crude and unconventional a solution of the problem. this metaphorical opening of the horse’s mouth on the part of the inquiring student himself marked an era in true scientific method. Ancient Science 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 1000 years before the birth of Christ; her tools of iron were sold in Rome 2000 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 understood that every article of food possesses a medicinal and nutritive value, from "time immemorial." Snaffled Science For centuries the culture of China was the equal of any modern Western nation. In number of first-rate intellects. wealth of dominions, political organisation, literature, art, floodcontrol 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 2000 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 sooth-saving 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 be waiting to experience its birth-pangs. Universal Boience In Australia there is a team of 500 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 erf elementary biology into every primary school in the Commonwealth. It is one of the functions of education to initiate the young citizen into his traditions and inheritance, without at the same time binding and shackling him to outworn methods. In Britain this aspect of education includes the legacies of 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 the horse’s mouth" for himself and to learn something of the life and structure of plants, animals (including himself) and the soil. Any man w’ho is entirely ignorant of the modern sciences of primary production cannot be said to be an educated person.