our necessities on the one hand, and our tastes or preferences on the other, when we were overtaken by the grand discovery of the cross-electric, and thenceforward the mere food question is for all time definitively solved. We had now ascertained that whereas, by simple electricity, we have only the first organizing step, namely, crystallization, by the cross-electric we complete the molecular of the organic structure. That step of progress did not indeed enable us to impart life to this organic structure, a result involving a still higher electric intensity which, if attainable, was still unattained; but, in imitation of life-action, we can facture organic substance, giving to it all the aspect and nutritious quality of the live and nature-made article.
Thus, as I have said, the mere bodily food question was solved. But hardly were we relieved of fears on this account, ere we were being plunged into others not one whit less alarming, namely, as to the brain supply—the food for the material instruments of the mind. We were then, in fact, just entering upon the grand modern battle of the phosphate supply. The great old philosopher Oke, as far back as nearly eleven centuries, had said, and with solemn emphasis and warning, "No phosphorus, no mind." Although no longer concerned as to adequate food supply for our bodies, we are thus seriously concerned indeed as to how far the apparently rather limited phosphorus supply in the world may prove adequate for all the brains that are, in ever-increasing ratio, brought into being.
