Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/301

Rh Another way by which the food supply of the world can be increased is by relieving tracts of land that are now used for other purposes than the cultivation of foodstuffs. The most interesting example of this kind is that presented by the cultivation of indigo. There is a large demand for this substance, which is plainly founded upon esthetic desires of a somewhat rudimentary kind. Whatever the cause may be, the demand exists, and immense tracts of land have been and are still, devoted to the cultivation of the indigo plant. Within the past few years scientific investigation has shown that indigo can be made in the factory from substances, the production of which does not for the most part involve the cultivation of the soil. In 1900, according to the report of Dr. Brunck, Managing Director of the Badische Anilin-and Soda-Fabrik, the quantity of indigo produced annually in the factory 'would require the cultivation of an area of more than a quarter of a million acres of land (390 square miles) in the home of the indigo plant.' Dr. Brunck adds: "The first impression which this fact may be likely to produce, is that the manufacture of indigo will cause a terrible calamity to arise in that country; but, perhaps not. If one recalls to mind that India is periodically afflicted with famine, one ought not, without further consideration, to cast aside the hope that it might be good fortune for that country if the immense areas now devoted to a crop which is subject to many vicissitudes and to violent market changes were at last to be given over to the raising of breadstuffs and other food products." "For myself," says Dr. Brunck, "I do not assume to be an impartial adviser in this matter, but, nevertheless, I venture to express my conviction that the government of India will be rendering a very great service if it should support and aid the progress, which will in any case be irresistible, of this impending change in the cultivation of that country, and would support and direct its methodical and rational execution."

The connection between scientific investigation and health is so frequently the subject of discussion that I need not dwell upon it here. The discovery that many diseases are due primarily to the action of microscopic organisms that find their way into the body and produce the changes that reveal themselves in definite symptoms is a direct consequence of the study of the phenomenon of alcoholic fermentation by Pasteur. Everything that throws light upon the nature of the action of these microscopic organisms is of value in dealing with the great problem of combating disease. It has been established in a number of eases that they cause the formation of products that act as poisons and that the diseases are due to the action of these poisons. So also, as is well known, investigation has shown that antidotes to some of these poisons can be produced, and that by means of these antidotes the diseases can be controlled. But more important than this is the discovery