596 THE OUTLOOK 



deposited in the carboniferous era, and now rendered available to us in 

 the form of coal and oil, have merely served, by one of those happy con- 

 junctions of historical circumstance which have rendered possible the 

 spiritual development of man, to tide us over the period of awakening 

 consciousness and undeveloped powers which comprised the age of 

 steam and the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century. Within 

 a period which is relatively brief in the age-long history of man these 

 stores will be exhausted and we must, as we assuredly will, long ere 

 that term arrives, solve the problem of manufacturing illimitable 

 supplies of fuel. Ultimately there is only one way in which this can 

 be done, and that is by transforming the radiant energy of the sun 

 into the potential energy of a falling weight, originally lifted by the 

 heat absorbed in evaporation, or else, as in the utilization of alcohol 

 for motor-fuel, by converting the radiant energy of the sun into the 

 potential chemical energy of a carbohydrate or a related or derived 

 organic compound. The latter method lies almost within our control, 

 the former not so nearly, and hence it is to the understanding and 

 control of the photochemical synthesis of organic compounds that we 

 must look in the main for our future sources of fuel and motive-power. 



The initial step of photosynthesis having been accomplished, the 

 succeeding stages in the evolution of organic compounds in living 

 organisms are accomplished at low temperatures through the agency 

 of enzymes. We are gathering acquaintance with the nature of these 

 substances and of the circumstances and principles which govern their 

 action, and through their right understanding and employment we 

 will ultimately be enabled to accomplish syntheses which at present 

 are possible only in living organisms or, if imitable in the laboratory 

 may only be achieved at the cost of an expenditure of energy and raw 

 materials far exceeding the value of the product. 



The further investigation of the oxidative processes which occur in 

 living organisms and underlie luminescence, is undoubtedly destined 

 to supply us with that hitherto elusive ideal, "cold light/' and the 

 remarkable advances in our knowledge of this field during the past few 

 years, assure us that this outcome of biochemical investigation is not 

 now very far from practical realization. The meteoric advance of 

 aviation, from the air-flotation experiments of Langley to the recent 

 flight from London to Australia, has shown us how rapidly in our 

 times practical realization may follow upon the heels of theoretical 

 possibility. 



The fuller understanding of the nature of enzymatic processes which 

 lies immediately before us will, ere long, lead to the discovery of their 

 chemical nature and composition. Advances have already been made 

 in this direction. Euler has produced an artificial oxidase, and Falk 

 an artificial lipase. It is not at all improbable that the digestive 

 enzymes are not nearly so complex as the earlier investigators imagined 

 and that the synthesizing enzymes are merely the digestive enzymes 

 or modifications of them, acting under differing physical conditions. 



