The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-07-14
FOOD OF THE FUTURE
CHEMISTS LABORATORY MAY DE-
sTRoY THE FARMERS USEFULNESS.

The Coming Race VIII Probably Go to
to- Cbs-tis:'s Shop For Food Supplies.
Grocery and Butcher Stores to Become
Facts of Past History.
II the predictions of science are ever
realized, the world in the age of the
coming race will be 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 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
patton Of the farmer will be thing OF
the past. The vast fields of waving
grain will disappear, no flocks 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,
ha nd
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
dsrful 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 fiavoring, 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 a 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 foot
resembling the natural one in nutrition
properties, and that it will even go fur
Their and do away with the form o
food as we at present know it. W.
will be able to take the elements com
posing certain articles of diet and III
troduce them direct into the human
stomach without going first through
the stage of edibles. The trouble ha
been that while all food is composed o
such elements as hydrogen, oxygen, car
bon and nitrogen, it was impossible t
m axe the stomach assimilate these ele
ments when taken as such, even III tn
exact proportions contained in the food
and even were we now to take the eS
act amount of these elements contalne
!; | in meal Of meat, bread, milk an
potatoes we would not find the leas
: beneficial effect.
: A meal for the average grown perso
engaged in ordinary work is estimate
! | to be about ounces of meat, 20 ounce
l of wheat bread, 30 ounces OF potatot
: and an ounce of butter. If science ca
; furnish us with the exact amount
/, elements contained in this amount
food and place it in such form that
q will be assimilated, the problem
solved. Science has already found OF
what composes all foods. 1t knows ii
exact quantity in each article OF ole
The remaining trouble is to get the'
!, clements in such shape that they can
h accepted by the stomach as easily
0 that way as in the form of present foo
AS far as making meats, cereals, vel
. etables and fruits directly from chen
J, icals, that would be the easiest task
o accomplish, more easy than the intr
ducing of the elements in primiti'
!, form into the human body. A famo1
IS French savant asserts that with carbo
% oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen and
. small per cent Of other elements the I
It ture chemist will be able to make eve
5, variety of food known to the race. IL
s. food will be not in the form IN whl'
we now know it, but it will necessari
: be manufactured in concentrated fori
;, There will be little squares which w
hold all the elements and nutrltl
70 properties of meat, tiny tablets whi
rs have the same life giving function
& bread, cubes of starchy matter and ev
q, fatty tissue and heating food for whi
y. carbon is needed will all be ranged
"a rows. The essential elements which
l. to preserve mans life will be foul