ABSTRACT
Scientific technique has been applied by human beings to satisfy a number of diverse desires. At first it was applied mainly to the production of clothing and to the transport of goods and human beings. With the telegraph it acquired important functions in the rapid transmission of messages, making possible the modern newspaper and the centralization of government. A great deal of first-class scientific intelligence has found its chief effect in the increase of trivial amusement. The most fundamental of all human needs, namely, food, was at first not much influenced by the Industrial Revolution; the opening-up of the American Middle West by means of railways was the first great change in regard to food that was caused by scientific technique. Since that time Canada, the Argentine, and India have become important sources of grain for European countries. The mobility of cereals which we owe to railways and steamships has removed the menace of famine which hung over all mediæval countries, and which has, even in quite recent years, afflicted both Russia and China. This change, however, important as it is, has not
been due to the application of science to agriculture. In recent times biological science has been found of growing importance in relation to the food supply. Economists used to teach that modern technique could only cheapen manufactured articles, while food was to increase steadily in price as population increased. It did not, until recently, appear probable that a revolution in food production as important as the revolution in the production of manufactured goods might be brought about by the application of science. Nowadays, however, this seems far from improbable.
