COMMEXCEMEXT EXERCISES 323 



as in problems of other sciences, this will not be a fad but a permanently 

 established educational movement. 



That a more perfect idea mar be obtained concerning science in the 

 home, specific treatment of some subjects may lend aid. 



Home sanitation is vital in its consequences and therefore deserves 

 careful attention from those who may be held responsible. The work 

 carried on by Sanitary Associations. Boards of Health and people in 

 authority has succeeded in arousing- the interest of homekeepers re- 

 specting the hygienic condition of their homes. It is in the house and 

 by the homekeeper that the work must be done. The man of the house 

 comes and goes and his work is elsewhere. The home is the woman's 

 domain and when danger threatens she is there to carry the burdens. 

 In one way every woman should be a Florence Nightingale. She proved 

 what foes light, pure air and good food are to disease, and so opened the 

 eyes of the military authorities to the needs of the army that today the 

 death rate of th(' English army is only one-tenth of what it then was. 

 In demonstrating this she not only showed the effect of sanitation 

 upon the army but upon the home where its importance cannot be 

 overlooked. 



Epidemics are no longer, as formerly, considered a punishment sent 

 down from heaven. They are indeed a punishment but for the sin 

 only of ignorance, Pasteur proA-ed that the feasibility of arresting dis- 

 ease is no longer an ideal. Millions of people have been saved from 

 death and poor health by the progress of science armed with the knowl- 

 edge of tuberculosis, the cause which produces it, its nature, its devel- 

 opment, the dissemination of the contagion and the means by which 

 it may be held in check. The American home is no longer blindly sub- 

 mitting to the onsets of this foe but is successfullv striA-ing to leave 

 no loopholes for an attack since the home is doubtless responsible for 

 the })rogress of all contagious diseases. 



Again we find a pertinent illustration in the scientific development 

 of cooking. This branch is better established — not because it is more 

 important than sanitation — but because it appeals more forcibly to the 

 daily wants of nmn. 



The homekeeper realizes the importance of having the proper kind 

 of food well cooked and served. She should also know how food con: 

 tributes to the body; how the food substances are changed on their 

 journey along the alimentary tract; how they are acted upon by the 

 digestive juices and assimilated by the body. 



Some conce])tion should be formed of how this food after entering 

 the body is used in ((mstruclivc w(uk of one kind or another, and in 

 what form eventually it is eliminated. Throughout all of these changes 

 it becomes possible to follow and measure the elements entering into 

 tlie constitution of the food so accurately that any departure from the 

 normnl ((uiditions may at once be noted. A harmony exists wliich to 

 <lestroy means to create a discord on functional activity or to ])roduce 

 disease. In the case of niti-ogen it is possible to alter its otVices in the 

 body by associating with it varying amounts of other food material. 

 In order to manijuilate food substances to produce the dilTorent and 

 desired effects upon the body, the homek«-eper should have a technical 

 knowledge of the subjects involved. Without such a knowledge she 

 becomes helpless in the control of natural forces and operates only in an 



