The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-29

forecast. his predictions would pass
the limit of human belief. Marvellous
as it may seem, the people of the flu
ture, in countless millions, will be fed
by means of air, water and carbon.
Four simple elments, carbon, hydro
gen. oxygen and nitrogen, universally
distributed over the earth are to fur
nish, in chemical combination, all
foods now known, other foods not yet
known, and all the fiavors and es-
senCes which make eating a luxury.
The epicure of the future is to dine
upon chemical meat, chemical bread,
and chemical vegetables, drink chemi-
cal wines and hqueurs, and round off
his repaSt with a chemical tobacco.
beside which the natural tobacco of
the presnt will make a very poor
showing. Wheat fields and corn fields
are to disappear from the face of the
earth. because flour and meal will no
longer be grown, but made. Herds of
cattle. f1ocks of sheep, and droves of
swine will cease to be bred, because
beef and mutton and pork will be
manufactured direct from their ele-
ments. Fruits and flowers Will doubt
less continue to be grown as cheap
decorative luXurieS, but no longer as
necessities in food or ornament.
There will be no grain or cattle or
coal cars in the great air trains of the
elements will exist everywhere, and
will not require transportation. Coal
will no longer be dug, except, perhaps
with the object OF transforming it into
bread or meat. All the big engines OF
the great food factories OF the future
viii be driven, not by combustion, but
by the underlying heat of the globe
All the wonderful and magical changes
which have been promised and prophe-
sled concerning the conditions of hui
man life in the centuries before US
pale into insignificance before the
strange alterations which are destined
10 transform our kitchens and our din
ner tables, and these are foretold and
described, as win be read below, in
the dry, exact language of science
and based upon undeniable facts.
synthetic chemistry is the special sci
ence which takes the elements of a
given compound and induces them tt
combine and form that compound. Il
is is the reverse of analytical chemis-
try which takes a given compound and
associates and isolates its elements.
PROF. BERTRELOT AND HIS EN-.
VIRONMENT.
No man is more entitled to act as 8
prophet in this field than Prof Berthe
lot If not the father, he is certainly
the foster father of synthetic chemis
y
fifty years has been one of the leader.
of the scientific army in the invation o.
an unknown territory, from which as
tonishing results have every now and
then been reported. In every way
open to a grateful nation, France ha.
loaded him with honors. He is mem
Der and perpetual secretary of the Ac
ademy of Sciences. member Of the In
stitute. and grand officer of the LegioI
of Honor. He is director general Of
the higher education, president of The
committee on explosives, and IN lS7,
was president of the committee on de
fence of paris.
Professor Berthelot. by virtue of on,
of his many scientific positions, occu
pies a residential suite of apartments
in the Institute of France. This is
great stretch Of old brown-stont
buildings on the Quai Malaquais, it
bare and barren courtyards bein:
paved with many square feet of gray
stone blocks.
The interview is had pursuant to al
appointment, and he plunges at onct
the subject, referring to his address o
April 5. before the Society of Chemica
and Mechanical Industries.
COMPOUND TABLETS IN 1000.
That address," he says, was in tn
nature of an after-dinner speech rattle
than a scientific pronouncement. w
do not use the drier language of sci
ences upon festive occasions. l wa
speaking, however, to an association o
chemists and l believe that all l pre-
dicted upon that occasion will in tn
process of time, say the year 2000
be actually or approximately the ex
listing state of affairs. 1 said that neV
sources of mechanical energy woult
largely replace the present use of coal
and that a great proportion of our sta
pie foods, which we now obtain b,
natural growth, would be manufacture,
direct, through the advance of synthet
ic chemistry, from their constituent ell
ements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, an,
nitrogen. | not only believe this, blu
am unable to doubt it. The tenden
cy tdirection) of our present progress
along an easily discerned line, and cal
lead to only one end"
do you mean to predict that all on
milk, eggs, meat and flour will in tn
future be made in factories p
"Why not. Ii it proves cheaper an,
better TO make the same materials thai
TO grow them? The first steps, and yo
know that it is always the first ste
that counts. have already been taken
We shall give you the same identica
food, however, chemically, digestively
and nutritively speaking Its form vii
differ, because it will probably be tab
let. Bat it will be tablet of any colo
Ind shape that is desired, and will,