264 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



EVER Y-DA T SCIENCE. 



IF, on the one hand, we have fre- 

 quent cause for astonishment at the 

 rapidity with which modern life is be- 

 ing transformed under the influence of 

 scientific invention and discovery, we 

 are, on the other, sometimes compelled 

 to wonder at the extreme slowness with 

 which certain useful and entirely prac- 

 ticable reforms, plainly indicated by 

 acknowledged scientific principles, are 

 adopted by the public. There is a law in 

 these matters which has perhaps never 

 been very clearly formulated, but which 

 it would certainly be desirable to under- 

 stand. The telephone makes its way 

 everywhere without pause or check, 

 and the same is true of electric lighting 

 and traction; while scientific cookery, 

 though its general principles may be 

 said to be fully established, lags pain- 

 fully behind. That the latter is a mat- 

 ter of the utmost importance, economi- 

 cally and hygienically considered, needs 

 no laborious demonstration ; yet how 

 to interest the public in it seems to be a 

 most difficult problem. People who go 

 wild over the New Jerusalem of " Look- 

 ing Backward " listen with cold indif- 

 ference when it is explained to them 

 how they can introduce here and now 

 a most important amelioration in their 

 own lives by economizing at once their 

 worldly substance and the wear and tear 

 of their physical organs. The fact that 

 the reform in question would be par- 

 ticularly beneficial to the so-called 

 "working classes" fails to commend it 

 to those who want a revolution or noth- 

 ing. It is probably the case that men 

 in general are more interested in spend- 

 ing than in saving, just as they have 

 more admiration to bestow on a great 

 warrior than on a great philanthropist; 

 and that, consequently, inventions that 

 represent and call for expenditure are 



more attractive than those which sim- 

 ply promote economy. More than one 

 modern " improvement," we doubt not, 

 has been adopted by many, as much 

 from the pleasure of spending and per- 

 haps a more potent consideration still 

 of appearing to be able to spend the 

 money required to procure it, as from a 

 sense of its utility. 



However this may be, and whatever 

 the law may be which regulates public 

 interest in the practical applications of 

 science, there can be no doubt that re- 

 form in culinary operations is deserving 

 of far more attention than it has hith- 

 erto received. As we showed last 

 month, it deals with a prime may we 

 not say the prime ? necessity of hu- 

 man life. It undertakes to substitute 

 for a wasteful and hurtful empiricism 

 in diet a scientific, economical, and 

 wholesome method of preparing food 

 for consumption. It shows us how we 

 may save our pockets, how we may save 

 our tissues, how we may lengthen our 

 lives, and how we may increase our 

 enjoyments. It promises to improve 

 our tempers by decreasing the internal 

 friction of our physical systems ; and, 

 of course, decrease of internal friction 

 means increase in our efficiency for all 

 good purposes. Unlike some reforms 

 that exist only on paper, and that at- 

 tract sentimental people for the very 

 reason that they are never likely to have 

 more than a paper basis, this particular 

 reform has been tried and realized. Its 

 results are known and can be exhibited 

 at any moment. "What is now required 

 is that people should be persuaded that 

 the thing is worth doing, and should be 

 roused to shake off that lazy love of 

 established routine which alone stands 

 in the way of their doing it. The ordina- 

 ry cooking-stove has so long been a kind 

 of domestic Joss that its worship is hard 



