Evening star., 1935-09-08

and ''Hokusai." whose laboratory
training gives him better right than
ours to an opinion, once remarked
TO us that biology as science is neces-
sarily limited by the fact that it can
consider only mechanism; it cannot,
within the scientific framework, take
into account the fact that it deals with
living organisms-and yet that is the
main point! Something escapes
from Observation-Disclosures the effort
20 measure it probably affects the find
ings. That is, observations on con-
trolled subjects are also controlled OBJ
servations and will not tell you exactly
what the same creatures will be and
do if you haven't got them under con-
troll and therefore cannot observe
them vigorously and continuously. :.
Take away what can only be called
free-will and natural conditions-well,
call them what you please-and you
have eliminated an important element
of the original set-up. -. Even fruit
flies kept in laboratory. DR. Eckstein
suggested, may be so bored that their
behavior, their very chemical reac-
tions and mutations, may be different.
:. We suggested, incidentally, that
maybe people live about as long as
they want to and no longer. He
agreed. This doesn't mean that
you can't kill a man with an ak or that
one might live forever; but within
reason, and sometimes beyond obvious
reason. it has truth in it. . Perhaps
this makes us a Vitalist, but. since we
are more or less alive, We have no
objection to the epithet. -.
NOV here is an advance quotation
from Man. the Unknown" by DR..
Alexis Carrell, whose scientific
achievements entitle him to respect
full hearing: I'VE must liberate man
from the cosmos created by the genius
of physicists and astronomers, of that
cosmos in which, since the ReSais-
sance, he has been imprisoned. De-
spite its stupendous immensity. the
world of matter is too narrow for him.
Like his economic and social garment,
it does not fit him. We cannot adhere
to the faith in its exclusive reality" -.
What an astonishing confession!
What makes DR.. Carrell suppose
that any one but himself has been
imprisoned in the world OF matter -
we don't know whether he has been or
not. but where else did he get the
impression? And if he has been,
science will never get him out OF 1t.
The door has been open, every
one with the capacity to do so has
been looking out, going out, all the
time.
Art, literature and morals have
never been confined in that prison.
We cannot read q poem or look
at a flower or tree without looking
through the open door. This Is not
mysticism, but common experience
which any human being of average
sensibility will confirm-we claim no
peculiar powers or exceptions. i
"The day has come to begin the work
of our renovation" DR.. .Carrel says.
He may speak for himself, but
the general assumption is rather Curl
GUS for q scientist-it's a reversion to
special creation. -.
"It is our only hope of escaping the
fate common to all great civilizations
of the past" DR.. Carrel affirms. i
There again he is contradicting him
self-the fate of gil great civilizations
of the past was to change. that is all.
Doubtless ours will be SO; why
should we hope to escape? -.
HARRY MERRILL HITCHCOCK
dropped In to talk about death
in the Desert" by Paul I. Wellman,
because he is especially interested In