ULTIMATE ARTiriCIALIZATION OF WATER 219 



power development, irrigation, drainage, and other purposes in such man- 

 ner that each will form a part of an interdependent nation-wide system ; 

 (6) to "utilize the natural corrasive and transportative power of streams 

 for their own improvement ; and (?) to so exfend navigation and water 

 transportation as to meet the nu;ltiplying needs of increasing population. 



PRODVCTIOJsl 



The final stage of water utilization is prospective rather than present ; 

 it pertains to hydrogeny — the actual production of water through organic 

 decomposition of compound substances : The production of water at vpill 

 promises to mark one of the two greatest steps in the human aspect of 

 planetary development; the earlier step was the conquest of fire (un- 

 doubtedly beginning with mere associative use, passing to diversion, and 

 ending with nearly complete creative control), which separated even the 

 lowest man from the liighest beasts and permitted progressive utilization 

 of natural chemical reactions in which relatively complex compounds 

 Avere reduced to relatively simple form in such manner as to yield useful 

 energy with useless b3'products ; the later and largely prospective step is 

 the subjugation of water (already under way through associative use, 

 now passing to diversion, and destined to advance toward complete and 

 perhaps creative control), which will undoubtedly permit eventual utiliza- 

 tion of natural chemical reactions in which relatively complex compounds 

 are reduced to simpler form in siich manner as to yield a useful byproduct 

 with immaterial expenditure of energy. The possibilities are vast, but 

 thus far too vague to be pursued — at any rate beyond such prophetic indi- 

 cations as (1) Burbank's inventions of novel or improved cacti capable of 

 collecting and storing effective quantities of HgO available for the susten- 

 tation of stock in arid regions, and (2) McDougal's novel applications of 

 these water-storing organisms as soil-media for the growth of other plants 

 (thereby literally performing the miracle of producing grapes from 

 thorns), which seem to open the way to conquest over the world's deserts 

 for human weal. 



Epilogue 



Summarily, the terrestrial HoO, or hydrosphere, envelops the entire 

 planet in the five natural divisions of sea water, ground water, aqueous 

 vapor, ice, and stream water; in an automatic (and virtually autono- 

 mous) way it so controls planetary temperature as to maintain in slightly 

 variable yet effective proportions its own liquid, gaseous, and solid states ; 

 in contact with other sul^stances and in some measure inherently, its 



