Thirty years before Rachel Carson's doom saying book Silent Spring (and did you see BBC 2's frightening programme Another Silent Spring? on Wednesday?), an Irishman wrote in much the same vein. His words were: "We should bear in mind that it is a risky business to interfere with the balance of Nature. It is very difficult, sometimes impossible, to readjust the wheels of Nature's workshop when they have been put out of gear. Life weaves on the loom of time an exquisitely fine, delicate web, and its warp and woof must not be ruthlessly torn."
The writer was Charles Joseph Patten and, of course, the date, 1931 was well before the arrival of chemical farming. A letter from Kieran McGovern of Ballinteer, Dublin, complains that this "great, yet forgotten - Irishman and Darwinist" has been too long neglected. Born 1870, was naturalist, ornithologist, taxidermist and prolific writer, yet, says our correspondent, is rarely mentioned or given credit for his work - often, he claims, attributed to others.
A man of many parts, he graduated with honours from Trinity College, Dublin in Natural Science and then became a surgeon and anatomist. At some stage he moved to England and died there in 1948. He was, our correspondent believes, responsible for all the ornithological work in the famous Clare Island survey of the Royal Irish Academy. Some of his bird specimens are still on display in the Natural History Museum in Dublin - a fascinating place. Many other of his specimens, collected and mounted by him, are in museums throughout the world, writes Mr McGovern.
Books by him include The Memory Factor in Biology; The Story of Birds, and Triumphs of Bird Lee. He broadcast on the BBC and The Story of Birds is a collection of his talks. He is, our correspondent says, rarely mentioned in bibliographies, though he wrote prolifically. He was also a pioneer of bird photography Irish birds of prey being a speciality. "His reinstatement is long overdue, and his huge contribution to Irish Natural History should be acknowledged.