LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 199, 



work of destroying digestion, of striking down nutrition, of blighting the 

 nervous force, of poisoning the tissues throughout the body, of making con- 

 science fool with duty, of thickly strewing the country wltli that tripplc 

 monster, sorrow, disease, and death. These evils not only induce some of the 

 most deadly of diseases, but oven worse, the poisoned tissues and corrupted 

 taste are transmitted to the children of those unfortunate ones who indulire 

 these pernicious habits. 



How many nerveless hands, unsteady brains, inflamed lungs, disordered 

 stomachs, sluggish livers, and inactive kidneys are to-day crying out because 

 of the cruel grasp of these monster habits, no one can tell. Says one of the 

 greatest physicians of London of the lesser of tliese evils, " Why should a mil- 

 lion of Englishmen be living with stomachs that only partially digest, hearts 

 that labor unnaturally, and blood that is not fully oxidized?"' In a purely 

 philosophical point of. view, we must say that the existence of such a million 

 of imperfectly working organisms because of the indulgence of a most filthy 

 habit, is no less a national absurdity than a national calamity. 



In the interests of health, no less than those of purity, refinement, and 

 patriotism, we ought all of us, by earnest precept, and more potent example, 

 to urge in strongest accents against these unnatural habits, which, to our 

 sorrow be it said, are rapidly becoming as common as they arc pernicious. 



CHEMISTKY IN HOUSEKEEPING. 



BY PRANK S. KEDZIE. 

 [Reail at Eerrien Institute.] 



As citizens of one of the most refined nations, and living in the nineteenth 

 century, we aim to act and live scientifically, and die only when science and 

 breath fail us. 



Chemistry, as a practical and economic science in its relations to the arts 

 and manufactures, is supreme. Every day wc learn of some new application 

 of some chemical principle to some process of manufacture; and modern life 

 has learned tliat it owes much to the weary, unremitting toil of the historical 

 alchemical enthusiast over his Dutch oven, his ugly crucibles and awkward 

 alembics, amidst poverty, suspicion of too great familiarity with the devil, 

 and the reproaches of an unphilosophical spouse. 



Useful as chemistry has been, and wonderful in its advancement at the 

 present in the arts, it is with extreme slowness that it is applied to domestic 

 life. The reason for this delay is apparent when we consider that domestic 

 life had to exist before either art or science. The preparation of clothing and 

 of food was necessarily a first attempt without any guiding principles, and 

 succeeding without principles at first, made the principles seem unnecessary 

 as time went on. 



In all the transactions of the Royal Society of Great Britain, of early years, 

 you will not find a hint of why we raise bread, nor why mix grease and lye 

 to make eoap, but you will find that tliey talked about interstellar space, etc., 

 and adjourned for dinner with a trusting faith that everything as all right at 

 home — and whether anything was left in a vacuum after you had exhausted 



