i9ii] Mary Louise F oster 259 



astically about Mrs. Van Rensalaer's lecture and said, " I find I have 

 been feeding my family on the things I ought not to have fed them 

 on. I thought I was giving them o£ the best, whereas it was the 

 worst possible combination. I am going to change." Perhaps she 

 was reforming on insufficient knowledge but surely the desire that 

 her family benefit by the improved methods was praiseworthy, 



Cooking and sanitary science are being introduced into the 

 grammar and preparatory schools all over the country. In the 

 meantime what are our Colleges of liberal arts for women doing to 

 give their students a share in this widespread desire for better 

 living conditions? Almost without exception they off er a single 

 course in food analysis, of three or five hours in a single semester! 

 This course was introduced as a concession to the demands of 

 alumuce, is taken only by the most advanced students in chemistry 

 and is of an exceedingly technical character. What about the large 

 numbers who graduate without taking more than the required chem- 

 istry? What of those who have taken no chemistry at all? Many 

 of these begin at once to teach. They have not increased their 

 knowledge of the benefits of science to the welfare of man. Is it 

 not possible to introduce courses of less technical character? Sta- 

 tistics show that there are some 75,000 women in the Colleges of the 

 country. They should be the leaders, trained in logical thinking 

 with power of concentrating their attention on the matter in band. 

 Could we infect them with our enthusiasm for scientific housekeep- 

 ing, there would be no household problems ! 



Professor Giddings defines the home as the place of development 

 of the social individual, economic and cultural. We have misplaced 

 the emphasis hitherto ; we are devoting our energies to the city and 

 State as the place of development of the individual rather than to the 

 home. There everything has long been done for his cultural de- 

 velopment and now measures are being urged for his economic 

 development. The economic valuation of a man is $20,000. This 

 is based upon efficiency, which is largely a matter of education and 

 health. These then are assets for which we are all eager. The 

 value of the former we have long recognized and have provided for 

 in our school Systems; the importance of the latter, health, is now 

 Coming to our attention. Modern methods are preventive rather 



