554 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



origin, the nature, and the role of alimentary substances ; regarding 

 the composition of meals for workers ; regarding the danger of cer- 

 tain dishes. 



"We know how much children like to play sick, or to play nurse 

 and doctor. It should be easy by playing with them to teach them 

 some knowledge of hygiene; one could stimulate in them questions 

 and answers about indigestion, diarrhea, constipation, growth ; about 

 the part played by milk, vegetables, gruel made from cereals, etc. 



I can readily imagine the conversations of this kind among the 

 improvised mothers and the doctors in short trousers : " Your little 

 boy has diarrhea, madam; you must give him vegetable broth.'* 

 " Your son vomits, which shows that he has eaten too much, or that 

 he does not chew his food well; you must teach him to chew a piece 

 of meat thirty times." " Your daughter has colic ; it is because 

 she has eaten too much candy. You should give it to her only for 

 dessert. Or perhaps she has eaten green fruit ; give her only cooked 

 fruits." Or again : " If your child has worms, it is because he eats 

 fruit which has been badly peeled or is poorly washed ; because your 

 greens are not properly cleaned; because he does not have his hands 

 washed before coming to the table; or because he puts his soiled 

 fingers in his mouth after having played in the dirt." 



We can imagine many other pieces of advice on alimentation to 

 put into the mouths of the children. I am sure that the skilled 

 nurses of the kindergartens would be able to make effective use of 

 play in the education of the little ones. 



In dealing with older children, pupils in the primary school who 

 learn lessons and do tasks, it would be possible to introduce informa- 

 tion about alimentary hygiene into the problems in arithmetic. The 

 majority of problems of alimentation come under the rule of three; 

 instead of giving in the problem, according to the old custom, the 

 number of spigots which fill a reservoir or trains which meet, there 

 could be used the calculation of the energy needs of a worker, of the 

 alimentary ration of a baby, of the comparative value of foods, of 

 the composition of an economical diet. They would be asked for 

 instance : " Is it more economical to make a lunch equivalent to 250 

 calories of sugared milk or of bread and chocolate?" The answer 

 would necessitate the child's consulting tables which give the com- 

 position of foods, their calorific value, and their price; and after 

 several exercises of this kind the young scholar would retain some 

 knowledge of dietetics and of domestic economy. 



The composition of ordinary foods should be known by everyone. 

 To know that milk is a complete food, containing albumen, sugar 

 or lactose, fat or butter, and minerals rich in lime; that the egg is a 

 food for development made of albumen and of fat; that meat fur- 



