Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-08-05
FOOD OF THE FUTURE
CHEMISTS LABORATORY MAY DE-
sTRoY THE FARMERS USEFULNESS.


If the predictions of science are ever
realized, the world in the age of the
coming race viii be a very different
world from that in which we live to-
day, and the food which will support
the people of that date will be derived
from totally different source. Profess
or Writ Tassin, the chemical mineralo-
gist of the National museum, Washing
ton, is the authority for the statement
that the problem of food will be solved
by the expert chemist Of the future.
Though pursuing his studies along
the line of inorganic chemistry alone,
he thinks that the predictions made by
organic chemists, that food can be
manufactured in the laboratory, will
be verified and that a great change will
thus be wrought in our life and country.
The things for which we now depend
on cattle, the field and the orchard will
be made in the orucible, and the oocu-
patton of the farmer will be a thing of
the past The vast fields of waving
grain will disappear, no hocks will dot
the green hillsides and no trees bend
beneath the weight Of golden fruit mel
lowing in the August sun. The hungry
man will be able to sit down at table
on which the meat, bread and potatoes,
as we'll as the coffee, milk, sugar and
tea. are chemical products, or he may
take his food in another chemical form
by eating the elements of which it is
formed in their original proportions.
The gentlemen at the head of the de-
partment Of agriculture hardly agree
with this view, which they say seems
very good in theory, but uncertain as to
practice Professor TaSsin, though mod
estly asserting that the matter is not in
his line, agrees with the French savant
who asserts that these predictions will
be fulfilled That there is ample reason
for allowing such progress of science
to be possible is evidenced by the won
derful things already done by the
chemist.
Eggs as perfect as ever came from
the nest Of a Plymouth hen have been
turned out OF the laboratories of French
chemists. Vanilla davoring, which was
formerly made from the extract of the
tonka bean alone, is now manufactured
chemically by simply combining its
known elements, and SO are the acids of
many fruits. Rubber and turpentine
are even now being sought for in chem
istry Artificial perfumes that never
saw flower are made from coal tars.
Alizarin as made by chemists has to-
tally destroyed the trade in the natural
article, and hundreds of other things,
among them being manufactured but
ter, may be mentioned where science
has done away with natures methods.
Professor Tassin thinks that chem
istry will be able to make perfect food
resembling the natural one in nutritious
properties, and that it viii even go fur
ther and do away with the form of
food as we at present know it. We
will be able to take the elements COM
posing certain articles of diet and in
troduce them direct into the human
stomach. without going first through
the stage Of edibles. The trouble has
been that while all food is composed of
such elements as hydrogen, oxygen, car
bon and nitrogen, it was impossible to
make the stomach assimilate these ele-
ments when taken as such, even in the
exact proportions contained in the food,
and even were we now to take the ex-
act amount of these elements contained
in a meal Of meat, bread, milk and
potatoes we would not find the least
beneficial effect
A meal for the average grown person
engaged in ordinary work is estimated
to be about s ounces Of meat, 20 ounces
of wheat bread, so ounces of potatoes
and an ounce of butter. If science can
furnish us with the exact amount of
elements contained in this amount of
food and place it in such form that it
will be assimilated, the problem is
solved. Science has already found out
what eomposes all foods 1t knows the
exact quantity in each article of diet.
The remaining trouble is to get these
elements in such shape that they can be
accepted by the stomach as easily in
that way as in the form of present food.
AS far as making meats, cereals, veg
etables aud fruits directly from chem
icals, that wopld be the easiest task to
accomplish, mere easy than the int-9-
dueing of the clements in primitive
form into tho human body. A famous
French sayant asserts that with carbon,
oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen and a
small per cent of other elements the fu-
| ture chemist Will be able to make every
variety of food known to the race. The
food will be not in the form in which
we now know it, but it will necessarily
/ be manufactured i'll concentrated form.
There will be little squares which will
hold all the elements and nutritive
properties Of meat, tiny tablets which
have the same life giving function as
bread, cubes ct starohy matter and even
/ fatty tissue and heating food for which
carbon i5 needed will all be ranged in
rows. The essential elements which go
to preserve mans life will be found
within the compass Of half pint meas
ure.
OF course the chemist must first get
his chemical food in such a form that
the stomach will assimilate it. Then his
work at making varieties of food will go
on, and there is no saying what new
foods the chemistry Of the future may
develop.
What the effect of this on the human
race will be cannot be foretold at this
early date The horse is already falling
into disuse; the manufactured steak
will do away With the raising Of cattle
except for hides. The vast fields of rice,
wheat, coffee, tea and other things of
the vegetable kingdom will be of the
past, while the dainty fruits VIII be
grown but as luxurious curiosities. The
hum Of the reaper will die away, and
we will no longer expect the farmay to
bring into the city the needed supplies,
/ but in the very center Of the crowded
metropolis will be numberless little lab
oratories where the people will be sup
piled each day with their concentrated
food, representing every edible known
to man, unaffected by climate or time.
The men of the coming race viii be
able to eat straw berries in December as
well as chestnuts III March, The deli
sious condiments of the world will be
made far more cheaply Than they can be
got from nature. Every nutritious and
life giving principle will be embodied
in the tiny tablets, and there will be
no army Of cocks, no huge, roaring
furnaces, but dainty electric light, on
which a square containing whole meal