12 THE CONTROL OF LIFE 



" This at least will remain beyond our powers, no one 

 will ever discern the contents of a closed wooden box." 

 But now they find the pearl in the unopened oyster and 

 locate the bullet buried in the bone. 



It was a fine epitaph that they put on the tomb 

 of Fraunhofer, the discoverer of spectroscopy — " Ap- 

 proximavit Sidera " ; but in how many other ways 

 has modern science enabled man to annihilate distance. 

 He has made the ether carry his messages ; he can 

 hear from afar the cry of the ship in distress upon the 

 sea ; he can make Niagara drive mills and illumine 

 cities hundreds of miles from the Falls. Science has 

 harnessed electricity to man's chariot, and added the 

 depths of the sea and the heights of the air to his navig- 

 able kingdom. Already Science is making bread out 

 of the thin air, working miracles in the conquest of 

 plague and pestilence, and controlling the inheritance of 

 generations unborn. 



The late Sir WiUiam Ramsay said : " Real gain, real 

 progress consists in learning how better to employ 

 energy — how better to effect its transformation." It 

 is an often told story how Science has enabled man 

 to tap one reservoir of energy after another, and to do 

 so with increasing economy. The less wasteful utilisa- 

 tion of our coal supplies is certain to be one of the 

 great changes of the near future (1921). The raw 

 material must be used more carefully ; gas and coke 

 must be made more economically ; the by-products 

 must be appreciated even more keenly than now ; 

 perhaps there will be more power-production in the 



