SCIENTIFIC PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE. 679 



these problems. This will entirely depeud upon the extent to which we 

 can reduce the fluid resistance. If we can eventually approximate in 

 any considerable degree to the easy course of the fish, the result will 

 amount to a complete revolution in ocean navigation. 



III. 



In order not to prolong this paper unduly I will only briefly mention 

 two more distinct subjects in which there seems to be room for probable 

 large new departures in the future, and at no remote date. 



The problem of how to extract the stored-up power in coal without 

 burning it is of the first importaijce to the whole future of physical 

 and mechanical science. It is generally admitted that the very best 

 designed furnace is but a lame and most wasteful way of utilizing the 

 vast reservoir of potential work in a ton of coal. The leading chemists 

 and professors of science are aware of the magnitude and importance 

 of this problem, and no doubt many able and competent brains are 

 now at work upon it. The question, if I rightly apprehend it, amounts 

 to this : How can we best, by some simple and practical process, reduce 

 coal to a condition in which it will, when brought into conjunction with 

 the inexhaustible reservoir of oxygen in the atmosphere, give us the 

 necessary elements for the production of an electric battery? The suc- 

 cessful solution of this problem will constitute a new era in science 

 and lead to results of vast and incalculable importance in the future. 

 It is quite jDossible that its early solution, by supplying us with the 

 necessary conditions for the production of power in an extremely light 

 and portable shape, will greatly hasten and fiicilitate a successful attack 

 upon the first discussed problem of aerial navigation. 



Lastly, the problem of how to reduce the vegetable foods, which at 

 present are only adapted to animals like the cow, the sheep, or the 

 horse, to a condition suited to the human digestion and to the human 

 palate is one of great importance. The chemical constituents of these 

 vegetable foods, such as grass, are similar to those which we now con- 

 sume in various existing foods, and they are adapted to the require- 

 ments of the human frame. It is only a question of digestion. It can 

 hardly be but that with the continual progress of organic chemistry 

 and medical science some means will sooner or later be discovered of 

 solving this problem. If the lu-ocess can be brought to a cheap and 

 workable shape the sources of our food supply will be greatly enlarged 

 and extended at a time, perhaps, when increasing population and a 

 growing pressure in the struggle for existence will render such a result 

 most opportune and welcome to the world. 



