100 YEARS AGO

For eight years I have had a large plant of Atropa growing here in my garden amongst currants and gooseberries; close by it is a mountain-ash, and at a short distance a large cherry-tree. Birds, including the blackbird, build in the garden; but although the cherries, currants, gooseberries and raspberries are annually stripped, the Belladonna berries are never touched. The birds are encouraged, and the fruit can be spared. The Belladonna berries are conspicuous objects from July to November; there are hundreds on my plant every year, long after other fruits have vanished — black, lustrous, luscious-looking — but no bird ever touches them.

From Nature1 December 1898.

50 YEARS AGO

One of the paradoxes of civilised life is the lowly position occupied among the sciences by the study of living things. There seems, in Great Britain at least, to be a general disposition to regard biology as something in the nature of a pastime, while the physicist and the chemist are held in respect as serious practitioners. Only in the treatment and, to a modest degree, the prevention of disease, and in agriculture, has biological science a recognized position. That the well-being of the human race is closely bound up with the equilibrium of Nature, is not generally recognized. It was therefore, with special interest that we studied the presidential address of Sir Henry Tizard at the recent meeting in Brighton of the British Association, and especially his conclusion that “Whatever new comforts and luxuries may be provided in future by the advancement of physical science, it is on the development of the biological sciences that the peace and prosperity of the world will largely depend”. With this view we are in hearty agreement, though we should prefer to substitute for the word “largely” the word “ultimately”⃛ But, if biology is to play the part required of it, it must be recognized as a profession, not as a hobby. It must be placed on the same professional level as chemistry, physics, engineering and medicine, with a corresponding prestige. For this reason we welcome the announcement of the proposal to establish an Institute of Biology.

From Nature4 December 1948.