The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-07-18
ARTIFICIAL FOOD.
Time II Coming when We Shall Dine ON
Pink Tablets.


Pink Tablets.
It is now prophesied that the time is
coming when bread and beef and milk |
or their equivalents will be produced
artifcially in the laboratory OF the
chemist.
Prof. Berthelot, the distinguished |
French chemist. is the authority for
this statement, and he declares that the !
first steps have already been taken and
he is sure that the coming generation
will have such artificial food. 1t will be
the same food chemically, digestively
and nutritively speaking, but will differ
in form.
just what the form of the food will be
is not limited at, except that it will prob
ably be served cold in the shape of tab
lets. and of any color or shape that may
be desired. Prof. Berthelot says gour-
NETS and epicures may mourn, but he
feels assured when they have grown ac-
customed to the change they will eat
nothing prepared in any other way.
In the future burned beefsteak, chop
or outlet will be thing unknown, and
steak well done may be ordered In
dim brown colored tablet, or steak rare
may be ordered in a tablet of light rose
hue. The colors alone, the chemical
prophet declares, will delight the cpl
curean senses and do much to overcome
the prejudices that are bound to exist
when the change is finally introduced.
| It has been demonstrated that even at
present tea and coffee could be made ar
| tificially in the chemists laboratory il
the necessity or the commercial oppor-
tunity should arise.
| Sugar il another commodity univers-
ally used that can now be made in the
laboratory, and an invention has been
patented by which, it is claimed, sugar
can be made on commercial scale from
two gases at price of little more than
one cent a pound. In long and inter-
esting report on the possibilities of OBJ
tanning food products by artificial
means Prof. Berthelot says: "The es-
sential principle of both tea and coffee
is the same. The difference of name
between them and caffein has arisen
from the sources from which they were
obtained. They are chemically identi-
cal in constitution, and their essence
has often been made alphabetically
The penultimate stage in the synthesis
is theo-bromine, the essential principle
of cocoa. Thus it may be seen that
synthetic chemistry is ready to furnish
from its laboratories the three great
non-alcoholic beverages in general use
And what is true Of food substances IL
, equally applicable to all other organic
substances"
! There is little or no limit to the pro
/ fessor's predictions concerning thu
> changes in the present existing condi
! ton of affairs on this mundane sphere
: He says: IF one chooses to bas'
] dreams, prophetic tancies and SO fortl
! upon the parts of the present one ma.
dream Of alterations in the presentcon
n ditions of the human life so great as t
y be beyond our contemporary concep
e ton. One can forsce the Disappearance
. of the beasts from the fields, becaus
: horses will no longer be used for trae
q ton or cattle for food. The counties
n acres now given over to the growing
l. grain and producing vines will be ayr
cultural antiquities which will hav
v passed out of the memory of men. Tn
& equal distributions Of natural food ms
n terials will have done away with pre-
Is tectionism, with custom houses, wit
national frontiers, kept wetwith huma
blood. Men will have grown too wis
for war, and wars necessity will hay
y ceased to be. The air will be filed wit
aerial motors, flying by forces borrowe
e from chemistry. Distances will dimiI
'e ish and the distinction between fertil
IS and non-fertile regions, from the cause
y named, will largely have passed ava.
n It may even transpire that deserts no
rs uninhabited may be made to blossol
-e and be sought after as great seats I
r population in preference to the alluvi'
plains and rich Valleys"
IS The new food that it is predicted Il
y coming generation will live upon
ID fact, the great proportion of our slap
II foods which are now obtained by ma
Us ural growth--will be manufacture
rs direct through the advance of synthet
chemistry, from their constituent Ell
I'd ments, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen an
he nitrogen. As an evidence OF the poss
Of bility Of the eventual disappearance {
a agriculture, Prof. Berthelot cited as q
is instance of laboratory products the dy
lp stuff alizarine, the coloring principle I
re madden, which was formerly gre'
e agricultural industry, but which Is no
almost wholly supplanted by the art
fetal product from coal tar. He all
y. declares that chemists can now NAL
indigo direct from its elements, and a
ID tificial indigo will soon become gre
v commercial product.
ut A century hence, II all that is pr
Of dicted is true, people will be eating the
soup, meat, fish and vegetables in Ia
let's that will come in tin boxes label'
h keep in a cool place" and they may
at eating full course dinner while ru
ly ming for train, or they can MUNICH
it comfortable breakfast unnoticed in I
he elevated train or cable car while I
be their way to business, If such means
or locomotion are not out of date in tn
tn progressive age.-N. Y. Journal.
=. Dsvsloping Csthodogrsph-
In developing cathodograph pictu
- it is noticeable that the developme
-. goes on all through the film, back
m well a. front. This il not the case WI