302 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



states. Knowing how nearly we have approached phosphate poverty 

 we can take measures to more properly protect them. 



With these materials, with the systematic study which is being 

 carried on in government laboratories, in experiment stations, in agri- 

 cultural colleges and universities of the chemistry of the soil and of 

 the food and metabolism of plants, with the industry of the fertilizer 

 chemists, and with the awakening of the farmer to the needs of such 

 knowledge, we can hopefully expect a bountiful food supply for the 

 world's table. 



The aid of science is noteworthy in increasing human vitality, — one 

 of the principal factors in national efficiency, and a form of conserva- 

 tion. In the sixteenth century the average length of human life is 

 estimated as being between 18 and 20 years ; to-day it is between 38 and 

 40 years. Modern hygiene is markedly lowering mortality and lessening 

 illness. Compare the former death rate of Havana, 50 to 100 per 1,000, 

 with the present one which is but little more than that of our northern 

 cities. Note the disappearance of yellow fever and cholera from the 

 Isthmus of Panama and the fall of the death rate to one third of that 

 of the French administration. Known to everybody is the successful 

 fight which is being waged to decrease the ravages of small-pox, tubercu- 

 losis, diphtheria, meningitis and the hook-worm. 



The food of the nation is being studied as never before by hundreds 

 of chemists; the actual needs of the body are being determined, the 

 kinds and amounts of food adapted to particular conditions are learned, 

 dangerous and adulterated foods are proscribed. Through the studies 

 of milk and children's foods by physiological chemists the mortality of 

 infants has been greatly diminished. In all these conflicts against 

 disease the chemists are in the front of the battle. A strenuous cam- 

 paign of education must be carried on, but already the light begins to 

 shine into the dark places. 



In this broad field of conservation where the opportunities for labor 

 are so great how are we, as educators, doing our part? Are we merely 

 applying our scientific knowledge, or are we also training others for 

 service — the young people of this university? 



Regardless of current discussions as to woman's proper place in the 

 social fabric, it is certain that society has caused her to specialize as 

 the conserver of the home. Her position may be modified in the future, 

 but it will be long years before she abdicates this regal station. I do 

 not mean that she should remain a household drudge, confined to the 

 walls of the kitchen, nor do I intimate that all women can, or care to, 

 be so distinguished. But Woman — das Ewig-Weibliche — is destined 

 long to preside, the goddess of the family, as in the days of Solomon, 

 the Wise, for, as then. 



