BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT RUMFORD 31 



the best way to keep men honest was tn pyp tlirnr nn rhinffl.fr ***\ 

 dishonest, fevery piece of yarn transferred from one room to 

 """"aTToTiEerT'every loaf of stale bread collected from the bakers had 

 to be duly recorded on printed blanks. In his recommendations 

 for all charitable work he emphatically insists upon strict book- 

 keeping and publicity of accounts. All cases of relief were to be 

 listed alphabetically. 



In his plans for systematic, impersonal, non-patronizing and 

 business-like assistance to self-support, Count Rumford antici- 

 pated the organized charities of a hundred years later, but in the 

 tact with which he secured the cooperation of the whole com- 

 munity, including the authorities of army, church and state, 

 prominent citizens of the middle classes, and the poor themselves, 

 he has had, unfortunately, few imitators. In five years he practi- 

 cally abolished beggary in Bavaria, and converted many of the 

 former mendicants into industrious and self-respecting people. 

 He took less pride in his decorations and titles than in telling that 

 when he was dangerously sick in Munich, he was awakened by 

 hearing the confused noise of the prayers of a multitude of people 

 who were passing in the street, and was told that it was the poor 

 of Munich who were going to the church to put up public prayers 

 for him, "a private person, a stranger, a Protestant." 



Rumford was able to carry out his plan of providing free dinners 

 to all who needed them by turning his inventive genius to the 

 subject of cooking, and making the first scientific study of cheap 

 and nutritious diet and the economical management of heat. His 

 specialty was a rich soup made of peas and barley, into which he 

 afterwards introduced potatoes, surreptitiously, because of the 

 popular prejudice against them. The secret of its preparation 

 lay in cooking for over four hours at a low temperature, and by 

 his skilful contrivances in the kitchen three women did the cook- 

 ing for a thousand persons. A pound and a half of soup, with 

 seven ounces of rye bread cost only one cent. He shows what a 

 great loss of heat occurs in cooking by the ordinary methods, which 

 unfortunately are still in use. In particular he objected to rapid 

 boiling which, as he says, cannot raise the temperature above the 



