166 EXPLOITATION OF PLANTS 
them the estimated total reserves of coal of all kinds in 
the world. They are— 
Asia » oe « s+ «  s 1,279,586,000,000 tons 
America . . . « « + 5,105,528,000,000 ,, 
Europe. . . . « + + ° 784,190,000,000 ,, 
ICA as, has a? GANG re 9 ae 57,839,000,000__,, 
Oceania . . . . . 170,410,000,000  ,, 
Many suggestions for reform and economy of our use 
of coal are before the public ; and I will not repeat them. 
But it is of interest to know that the demands for Govern- 
ment intervention in our handling of coal are neither 
so novel nor so recent in origin as most believe. In 
the course of my efforts to read all that has been 
published on the aspects of coal research which interest 
me, I came upon the work of J. Williams, published in 
1789. The book is in the British Museum, and the 
title page immaculate, else I should have thought I was 
reading extracts from the current newspapers. In 1789 
this prophetic man proclaimed : “ If our coals are really 
not inexhaustible, the rapid and lavish consumption of 
them calls aloud for the attention of the Legislature, 
because the very existence of the metropolis depends 
upon the continued abundance of this precious fossil 
... and not only the metropolis ... but the most 
fertile countries in the three kingdoms. . . . It is high 
time to look into the real state of our collieries.” He 
continues: ‘‘ The present rage for exporting coals to 
other nations may aptly be compared to a careless spend- 
thrift, who wastes all in his youth, and then heavily drags 
on a wretched life to a miserable old age, and leaves 
nothing for his heirs.” If this was said in 1789, what 
can be said to-day ¢ 
