Atomic Energy in Medicine

ical environment on human activity and behavior, as well as the physical and climatic milieu. Unfortunately, the book is slanted. Since the author worked with Carrel, the writing is colored by the dualistic approach to the nature of man. While admitting that man is a physical chemical machine, his activity is governed in part not only by the physical laws of the universe but, also, by spiritual and moral laws. The author pleads for the development of an elite through the application of what we know about genetics, nutrition, climate, and education. Inherent in the argument is the belief that the social organizations of man are more important than the individual. This is always the argument of the moralist who thinks he knows all the answers and would make others conform to what he believes is right. The author proposes the development of better individuals but only because they can thereby build better communities. He admits that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but forgets that the whole cannot exist without adequate components. Very clearly he assumes the existence of a moral law which is something over and above the laws of the material universe. It will be remembered that Sir Charles Sherrington in his important book, Man on His Nature, calls attention to the difficulty of explaining how mind, which exists in neither time nor place, and which involves no energy transformations, influences the brain which does exist in space and in time, and which does involve energy transformation. This is the key problem, of course. In all studies of man one must decide, largely as a matter of belief, whether or not man is a special creation endowed with a mind or a spirit which transcends the physical, or that man is a collection of material substances subject to natural law which, because of incredible complexity, acquire qualitative attributes that the dualists prefer to call mind, or soul. For the dualist, this mind or soul recognizes the existence of moral law which transcends natural law. Unfortunately , this denies the unity of the universe. Moral law then becomes a matter of belief which cannot be subjected to the same kind of verifiable analysis to be found everywhere in the physical universe. It would seem much more intelligent to hold that what is true is right, and what is wrong is evil. Since our understanding …