Book I begins with satirical remarks on "scientists", then introduces Mr. Bensington, a research chemist specialising in "the More Toxic Alkaloids", and Professor Redwood, who after studying reaction times takes an interest in "Growth". Redwood's suggestion "that the process of growth probably demanded the presence of a considerable quantity of some necessary substance in the blood that was only formed very slowly" causes Bensington to begin searching for such a substance. After a year of research and experiment, he finds a way to make what he calls in his initial enthusiasm "the Food of the Gods", but later more soberly dubs Herakleophorbia IV. Their first experimental success is with chickens that grow to about six times their normal size on an experimental farm at Hickleybrow, near Urshot in Kent (where H. G. Wells was born and raised).