528 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



furnishing of the house. By finishing I mean such processes as 

 papering, painting, glazing, and varnishing. Furnishing would 

 embrace the origin and manufacture of cotton thread, flax, linen, 

 hemp, canvas, cane, wool, carpets, oilcloth, cocoanut fiber, mir- 

 rors, German silver, silver ; the processes of lacquering, plating, 

 and the manufacture of pottery, porcelain, and earthenware. 



The next division would concern the person, and would in- 

 clude chapters on clothing, food, washing, writing, and reading. 



In clothing would have to be described the textile fabrics, skins, 

 tanning, with such adjuncts as pins, needles, combs, and brushes. 



Concerning food I should be inclined to confine the instruc- 

 tion to such things as the five B's of food — bread, butter, beef, 

 beer, and bacon — and such as milk, cheese, eggs. 



The description of the manufacture of bread should be in a 

 manner an intellectual epic poem. The growing of the wheat, its 

 thrashing, winnowing, grinding, bolting ; the nature and effect of 

 yeast; the effect of baking; the relationship between the con- 

 stituents of the wheat and the body. All this, I say, constitutes 

 an epic of infinitely greater beauty, strength, and significance 

 than can be furnished by the sulks of Achilles, the wanderings of 

 the pious ^neas (I wish he had been drowned), the tortures of 

 the Inferno, the ravings of Orlando, the childish imagery of 

 Milton, or the dreary paraphrase of Klopstock. 



The epic of bread is, and must be, as far above the epic of the 

 poet as is the mere external beauty of a living flower above that 

 of the most elaborate and gorgeous design on the back of a play- 

 ing card. And I suppose the study of the construction and life 

 of the flower is more elevating than the most subtle game of 

 whist which was ever played. 



In the matter of food, again, we have to guard carefully 

 against the dogmatism of the smatterers who talk so glibly of 

 flesh-formers, fat-formers, bone-formers, and so on, as though you 

 had only to eat fat in order to become fat ; bone, to become bony ; 

 flesh, to become muscular. There are people whom one may, 

 without offense, call the "prigs" of this particular branch of 

 science, who fancy that Liebig's extract of meat, .for instance, is 

 concentrated meat, and that a few grains of it are of the same 

 nutritive value as an ounce of meat. This, I need scarcely say, 

 was not the view of the illustrious author of the extract. He 

 justly looked upon it as a condiment or stimulant. There are 

 those who, by quoting chemical formulae, would fondly persuade 

 us that there is as much nourishment in an egg as in a chop. I 

 need scarcely say I do not believe them, for I don't suppose you 

 do. Such people compare the analysis of grain with that of the 

 human body, and tell us to eat pumpernickel, or rye bread, or 

 brown bread, or whole-meal bread, or white bread, according to 



