120 PHYSIOLOGY AND NATIONAL NEEDS 



in which the grain is stored may be raised to the 

 required temperature, or badly infected grain may 

 be put through special cleansing machinery and 

 heat applied at the same time. I understand that 

 the latter plan was very successfully employed by 

 my colleague Professor Maxwell Lefroy, who was 

 sent out to Australia by the Koyal Commission on 

 Wheat Supplies to find out the best method of 

 dealing with the enormous stocks of wheat accumu- 

 lated there under most unfavourable conditions 

 during the war. Apparently the time necessary 

 to effect the destruction of the insects at a tempera- 

 ture of 145 F. is very much less than used to be 

 supposed, for Professor Lefroy is reported to have 

 said, in a lecture delivered recently at the Royal 

 Institution, that a temperature of 145 applied for 

 three minutes killed anything. 



Apart altogether, however, from the actual loss 

 due to the attack, all curative methods are both 

 expensive and troublesome, and what is urgently 

 required is some practical method of storage which 

 shall render the grain absolutely safe from deteriora- 

 tion for a large number of years to whatever cause 

 such deterioration might be due. All theoretical 

 considerations seem to point to air-tight storage 

 in properly constructed granaries as the ideal plan. 

 Moreover, this method, or a reasonably close ap- 

 proximation thereto, has been very widely employed 

 from time immemorial amongst primitive races 



