ALIMENTARY EDUCATION OF CHILDREN LABBE. 555 



nishes especially albumen; that fruits contain sugar and potatoes 

 starch, is equally useful for the mother who nurses her baby, for 

 the worker who must renew his energy economically, and for the 

 young man who goes in for sports. 



But it can not be a question of imparting this information by 

 means of books, by forcing the scholars to learn by heart tables of 

 the composition of foods the way we formerly learned the list of 

 departments or of Greek roots. 



It is necessary that they enter the mind without effort, without 

 becoming a bore, almost unconsciously. This is made possible by 

 the colored plates figuring the composition of the ordinary foods 

 published by the Americans : The general form of the food is easily 

 recognized, and the red, blue, yellow, green, and brown colors indi- 

 cate by their relative depth the proportion of albumen, of carbo- 

 hydrates, of fat, of water, and of mineral substances which it con- 

 tains. 



If these plates are posted on the wall of a school, the child, in 

 looking at them every day, will easily learn to know the type of fat 

 food, such as butter or oil, which is entirely yellow ; the type of carbo- 

 hydrate food, sugar, which is depicted in blue ; the type of food rich 

 in protein, like meat and smoked fish, which is shown in red. 



Figures showing the exact percentage composition of the foods 

 make of these plates a real dictionary of alimentary substances. 

 I have placed them on the walls of my consultation room at the hos- 

 pital, where I use them in dietetic demonstrations. However, as they 

 are of small size and in small type, they are adapted only for small 

 lecture rooms. I have also had designed after these, three large 

 placards, reproducing the types of foods which are the most useful 

 to know, which are for use in larger auditoriums. Placards prepared 

 on this model will render great service in instruction in alimenta- 

 tion in primary or secondary schools, as well as in medical schools. 



It is also through the eyes that we can teach children the princi- 

 pal dangers to which unwholesome nourishment exposes them. To- 

 wards this end, I have had designed by Mme. G. B. Blanchard four 

 placards, representing the danger in milk, in meat, in water, and of 

 dust and dirt in food. 



On the first we see how milk coming from diseased cows or goats, 

 kept in dirty containers and milk houses, exposed to dust, mixed 

 with infected water, can transmit a series of diseases such as tuber- 

 culosis, apthous fever, Malta fever, typhoid fever, dysentery, infec- 

 tious gastroenteritis of children. 



On the second, we see meat from animals aifected with infectious 

 or parasitic disease, meat badly preserved, becoming the cause of 

 morbid transmission such as tuberculosis, glanders, typhoid fever, 

 tapeworms, etc. 



