The Limits of Progress

Despite genuine advances, Belle Époque science had significant limitations. Eugenics gained scientific respectability. The Société Française d'Eugénique, founded in 1913, promoted "racial improvement" through selective breeding. Intelligence testing justified class hierarchies as biological inevitability.

Scientific racism permeated anthropology and medicine. Craniometry "proved" European superiority. Colonial subjects served as experimental subjects without consent. The Tuskegee experiments had French parallels in African colonies. Ethics lagged behind technique.

Women scientists faced systemic discrimination. Marie Curie remained exceptional—most women worked as assistants, computers, or illustrators. Their contributions vanished into male colleagues' publications. The feminization of certain fields—like crystallography—led to their devaluation.

Industrial pollution increased despite chemical knowledge. The match factories' phosphorus poisoning continued despite alternatives. Lead paint remained common despite toxicity awareness. Profits trumped precaution. Science served commerce more than public welfare.

The military applications of scientific discoveries remained largely unrealized. Chemists developed explosives and poison gases but didn't foresee chemical warfare's horror. Physicists split atoms without imagining atomic bombs. Innocence about science's destructive potential would die in WWI trenches.