M. Dumas on the Constitution of Milk and Blood. 131 



either by the existing vegetation, or by the remains of the 

 ancient vegetation of the globe, and in nourishing himself by 

 means of products obtained from plants and animals, demands 

 every thing from life; but could he dispense with life in 

 obtaining his combustible and his nutriment? Would the 

 forces of science alone suffice to assure to him, in this urgent 

 need, those satisfactions which he could no longer demand 

 from the forces of living nature ? 



This was the question. If put in a time of peace and in 

 the midst of abundance, it would probably have received more 

 than one response in the affirmative. The progress of the 

 physical sciences has been so brilliant ! One is so much 

 disposed to exaggerate their power ! Electricity opens up 

 such seductive perspectives ! Synthesis has produced so 

 many marvels in the hands of chemists ! 



If the necessity had not been so pressing, so that the ques- 

 tion might have been raised as a philosophical thesis, and we 

 could have said to the physicists and chemists, Could you not, 

 if it were necessary, furnish man with heat and food without 

 having recourse to plants and animals ? how many, without 

 saying yes, would, at least, have answered with one of those 

 smiles which do not say no. 



But in a crisis where it was necessary to realize immediately 

 what would have been left to hope, people showed reserve ; 

 radical solutions were adjourned, and there was no question 

 either of heating Paris without combustibles, or of feeding it 

 without organic aliments. 



But could organic materials usually disdained be converted 

 into aliments, so as to replace, by means of clever combinations, 

 those natural products which could no longer be procured ? 



It is not my design to notice what viands were served at 

 table, or what resources we were led to seek in the blood and 

 offal of the slaughter-houses which are usually thrown away, 

 the bones, feet, and even the skins of the cattle slaughtered. 

 Nor will I examine how the butter and lard, which were 

 speedily exhausted, were replaced. Of these improvised arts 

 some have disappeared with the circumstances which gave 

 them birth, whilst others have left some useful teachings. 



I shall treat only of a special question, the solution of which 

 involved certain principles which it seems to me to be impor- 

 tant to guard. Was it not possible to come to the assistance 

 of new-born children by replacing the milk, which could no 

 longer be got, by some saccharine emulsion ? In this case 

 there was no question of creative chemistry, but only of culi- 

 nary chemistry. Recipes were not wanting, all reproducing 

 an albuminous liquid, sugar, and an emulsion of a fatty body. 



K2 



