The Family 135 



find naught but sun in the fruits which we 

 consume ? 



Chemical science, that bold revolutionary, 

 promises to provide us with synthetic food- 

 stuffs. The laboratory and the factory will 

 take the place of the farm. Why should not 

 physical science step in as well ? It would leave 

 the preparation of plastic food to the chemist's 

 retorts ; it would reserve for itself that of energy- 

 producing food, which, reduced to its exact 

 terms, ceases to be matter. With the aid of 

 some ingenious apparatus, it would pump into 

 us our daily ration of solar energy, to be later 

 expended in movement, whereby the machine 

 would be kept going without the often painful 

 assistance of the stomach and its adjuncts. 

 What a delightful world, where one would lunch 

 off a ray of sunshine ! 



Is it a dream, or the anticipation of a remote 

 reality ? The problem is one of the most im- 

 portant that science can set us. Let us first 

 hear the evidence of the young Lycosae regard- 

 ing its possibilities. 



For seven months, without any material 

 nourishment, they expend strength in moving. 



