The Message of Science. 85 



now well-known causes of death. The task is too great 

 to be undertaken by individuals, and remains over for the 

 organized effort of nations and races. 



All life which is really living and worth living is 

 progress; and an interesting feature of the next fifty 

 years will be presented by improved human habitations. 

 A new type of dwelling has already appeared in the 

 larger communities a communal house admirable in 

 its sanitary arrangements, ventilation, heating and light- 

 ing, with a common kitchen, relieving the individual 

 heads of families from the costly and unnecessary drudgery 

 of so many small, isolated cooking-places. The lofty 

 steel and brick city apartment house, however, bids fair 

 to be replaced for much of the year by a country habita- 

 tion, located apart, amidst rural surroundings, and of no 

 greater altitude than three stories, but of large ground 

 area. Such communal dwellings, for four, six, or eight 

 families, will have all the perfected equipment of the 

 larger city apartment house, and, in addition, private 

 gardens, groves, orchards, and rural scenery. 



The kitchen will be a joint or cooperative effort, but 

 attended by difficulties and trouble. For it is the ques- 

 tion of improved food which will longest baffle the genius 

 of the chemist and biologist. Nor need this be a matter 

 for surprise. Nutrition is the problem of the coming age, 

 par excellence. 



