Evening star., 1928-12-01
THE LIBRARY TABLE
Bv the Booklouer

stiles. Both must have food and both
must fight their enemies in order to
keep alive. Primitive man ate raw or
crudely roasted flesh and wild fruits
and grains: he fought wild animals and
his fellow man as his chief enemies.
Civilized man eats carefully broiled or
roasted meats from animals raised for
his use and luscious hot breads made
from wheat or corn grown over large,
specially prepared areas; he fights dis
ease as his ever-lurking enemy. In
two books Paul de Kruif has. through
series of dramatic biographies, repre-
sented the way in which these two
great needs of man, food and protec-
tion from enemies, have been met by
certain modern scientific investigators.
In "Microbe Hunters" he tells of the
earliest discoveries Of germs by the
Dutch microscopic Leeuwenhoek and the
italian naturalist Spallanzani, and OF
the experiments of Pasteur, Koch, and
many other scientists. directed toward
the conquest of the microbes causing
disease. In Hunger Fighters" Mr.. de
Kruif tells of the equally valuable, often
heroic, work of those scientists who have
learned how to protect our food supplies
from germ and insect enemies and how
to produce new foods to augment
supply which must continually increase
X X v
In Hunger Fighters" we see the old
fashioned druggist. William Saunders,
starting the Dominion Experimental
Farms at Ottawa, and there, and else
where through Canada. with the help
of his son, Charles Saunders, and Of
Angus Mackay making the experiments
of crossing the Red Fife wheat with
the Hard Calcutta. which gave to Can
ada the Marquis wheat early ripening
frost resisting and heavy yielding. We
see Dr. Marion Dorset Of the Bureau
of Animal Industry, Department of
Agriculture, discovering. after eight
years of experiment with Iowa pigs a
serum for the treatment of hog cholera.
In the year 1907. "the year the MARQUIS
wheat first defied the frost" the serum
was first used with what seemed nagi-
cal effect on AZ Iowa farms.
Lurking inside the rabbits. which so
many people enjoy stewed or fried is
mysterious menace. a germ called
bacillus tularense, which causes the dis
ease tularemia. This disease and its
cause have been studied intensively by
the hunger fighter Edward Francis
of the Hygienic Laboratory of the
who advises: IF all cooks,
market men, hunters. housewives
and others who dress rabbits
would wear rubber gloves when do
ing so they would not contract
tularemia" Another of the mystery
stories in Hunger Fighters" is how DR..
Stephen Babcock of Wisconsin Univer-
sity. ''the father of the vitamins." dis
covered that there is some elusive X
quantity in foods which makes human
beings and animals thrive. and whose
lack causes them to develop disease or
to sink into decline. Experiments with
cows and their calves, carried on by
DR.. Babcock's two assistants, Hart and
Humphrey. showed that cows fed on
wheat were lean, weak, poorly resist
ant to disease and produced sickly
calves. whereas corn-fed cows were fat
and sleek and produced vigorous, frisky
calves. The nature of this x quantity
in corn and of the x quantities, or Wit
amins, in other foods has never been
found, but chemists have been able TO
discover which foods contain these Ks.
with great advantage to medical science
and to human beings.
*
Charles Edward Russell, last years
Pulitzer prize winner for biography,
treats of familiar scenes and topics in
his new book "A-Rafting on the Mis-
sissip'" Mr. Russell was born on the
Mississippi River at Davenport. Iowa,
at the foot of LIE Claire Rapids. He
was brought up among boats and river
people and learned to steer a steam
boat when he was Is. In "A-Rafting
on the Mississip'" he tells the story of
the logging and rafting industry. which
reached its peak about the middle of
the last century during the great set
tlement of the West. The book is made
up partly of the "reminiscences of old
river men. partly from rare old letters
and diaries and partly from the au-
thor's own experiences along the Missis-
sippi.
In her book. IAN Empress in Exile"
by Empress Hermine. wife of the eX-
Kaiser. this companion in his retreat
at Doom gives many interesting pic
lures of the dethroned sovereign. Dur
ing his stay at Amerongen, from No.
vember. 1918, to May. 1920. his majesty,
William II, sawed 1900 stems of pine.
In Doom. since May, 1920. he has
felled and sawed 1000 stems" Add to
this statement that the ex-Kaiser's
woodpile today includes oak and beech
trees a yard in diameter and 80 feet
long" and we have an example of the
Empress method in presenting her dis
tinguished husband to us as private
individual 0n GU cta
us, 1.-The imperial gardener often waters
flower beds. especially his beloved
rhododendrons The pals he uses
contain 10 quarts. The En-
peror has emptied as much as TOO
pals in single day with the help of
his gentlemen. During the drought in
1921 the Emperor helped to convey or
to pour out 175,000 liters of water, or
about $500 pals. No wonder he keeps
his figure!" We are not to understand
from this. however. that the former
Emperor has become mere newer of
wood and drawer of water Far from
It'll" since the Kaiser cannot visit
the world" the Kaiser says "the
world comes to him. There
is hardly a week that does not
delegations" Yet these public or
semi-public activities are somehow not
as interesting as the intimate details
of the Kaisers daily routine In the
evening, when there are no guests. the
Emperor sits with me in my roonE read
ing, Sometimes 1 join him in his work.
room in the tower. where he is sur
rounded by all the souvenirs of his life
that he treasures most. including a
water-color sketch of himself painted
by his grandmother. Queen Victoria.
This Is the room where he writes his
letters and his books The Emperor
rarely dictates. He prefers to write out
all manuscripts in longhand with an
indelible pencil. His secretary copies
his notes on the typewriter and adds
the originals to the imperial archives.
Outside, the Emperor's three
faithful dachshunds keep watch
They were with the Kaiser at his pal
ace in Berlin. They followed him
through thick and thin throughout the