6zS 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ful with the pupils. It was easy and pleas- 

 ant, yet careful and thorough, and secured 

 a rapid and gratifying proficiency. 



" In saying that the South Kensington 

 Cooking-School has been successful, I speak 

 from direct knowledge of it. I was a pupil 

 there for several weeks, and carefully ob- 

 served its operations. The classes showed 

 the most extraordinary mental and social 

 diversity. There were cultivated ladies, the 

 daughters of country gentlemen, old house- 

 keepers, servants, cooks, and colored girls 

 from South Africa, together with a large 

 proportion of intelligent young women who 

 were preparing to become teachers. They 

 worked together with a harmony and good 

 feeling that, I confess, somewhat surprised 

 me, but they were all closely occupied and 

 thoroughly interested in a common object. 

 There were teachers to provide materials, 

 to plan the daily work, to direct operations, 

 and to be consulted when necessary ; but 

 the admirable method adopted left each 

 learner to go through her task with but a 

 small amount of assistance. Indeed, the 

 completeness of the directions in hand 

 seemed to assure the success of every pupil 

 from the start. There was, of course, a 

 difference in dexterity, and in facility of 

 work previously acquired ; but raw begin- 

 ners went on so well that they were as- 

 tonished at what they found themselves able 

 to do. 



" American ladies, when looking over 

 these lessons, are apt to smile at their ex- 

 treme simplicity and triviality, but it must 

 be remembered that the difference between 

 good and bad cookery is very much a mat- 

 ter of attention to trifles. Slight mistakes, 

 small omissions, little things done at the 

 wrong time, spoil dishes. The excellence 

 of these lessons consists in their faithful- 

 ness in regard to minutias, and the habits 

 they enforce of attention to trifling particu- 

 lars. They make no claim to literary merit. 

 The receipts are homely, direct, and meant 

 only to be easily and distinctly understood. 

 They are full of repetitions, because pro- 

 cesses are constantly repeated, and it was 

 necessary that the directions in each re- 

 ceipt should be full and complete. They 

 are not enticing reading, because they were 

 made to work by. The book, in fact, be- 

 longs in the kitchen where cookery is done ; 



and it is now republished because its suc- 

 cess there has been demonstrated. Many 

 hundred persons totally ignorant of the 

 subject have become efficient and capable 

 cooks by pursuing the mode of practice 

 here adopted by going through these les- 

 sons and the same results can be obtained 

 by pursuing the same method anywhere. 

 American housekeepers who have any real 

 interest in home improvement, and are will- 

 ing to take a little pains to instruct their 

 daughters or their servants in the art of 

 cooking well, will find the volume an ade- 

 quate and invaluable help toward the at- 

 tainment of this object. It will prove a use- 

 ful text-book in the cooking-schools that 

 are springing up in this country, and classes 

 could be advantageously formed in it for 

 kitchen practice in every female seminary 

 in the land." 



Appended to the volume is an admirable 

 essay on " The Principles of Diet in Health 

 and Disease," by Dr. Thomas K. Chambers, 

 one of the highest living authorities upon 

 that subject. This is a most valuable ad- 

 dition to the work. As food is prepared in 

 order to be eaten, as the subject of cookery 

 is therefore in close relations with that of 

 diet, and commonly receives too little atten- 

 tion on the part of housekeepers, it was an 

 excellent idea to furnish an authoritative 

 summary of the facts and rules of the most 

 recent dietetical science. Good cookery and 

 rational diet are equal conditions of health- 

 ful enjoyment. 



Annual Record of Science and Industry, 

 for 1877. By S. F. Baird. New York : 

 Harper & Brothers. Pp. 494. Price, 



$2. 



The "Record" for 1877 is consider- 

 ably less voluminous than its predecessors, 

 and the reduction in size has been effected 

 by summarily omitting one of the two main 

 divisions of the work, namely, that con- 

 taining abstracts of notable scientific pa- 

 pers. In truth, it would be simply impos- 

 sible to compress within the limits of an 

 ordinary volume an intelligible synopsis 

 of the important scientific papers annually 

 contributed to the proceedings of learned 

 societies and the periodical press. Hence, 

 we cannot but approve the action of Prof. 

 Baird in omitting that feature of the " An- 



