THE CHEMISTRY OF THE KITCHEN. 365 



The inorganic alimentary principles, water and saline 

 compounds, are an indispensable part of the animal system. 

 Water is everywhere abundant. It constitutes three-fourths 

 of the weight of man and animals, and a much larger part of 

 many articles of food. It undergoes no digestion or chemi- 

 cal change within the body, but is absolutely essential to 

 every chemical and vital change, every manifestation of the 

 life-force in any form. Its union with tissues is mechanical, 

 not chemical. It is the great diluent in Nature's laboratory. 



The skeleton must be built up from mineral matter, and 

 this is supplied, in animal and vegetable foods, in the form 

 of salts of lime, soda, potash, phosphorus, sulphur and iron. 

 A part of these salts are found in the bones, others in the 

 brain, muscles, blood, and other tissues. 



Certain organic vegetable salts, such as the citric, tartaric, 

 malic and peptic acids, with their compounds, are needed in 

 healthy blood. Just how they act we do not certainly 

 know ; but when withheld for any considerable period, and a 

 diet of salted food is used, scurvy with all its woes is the 

 sure result. 



Other accessory foods are condiments, such as mustard, 

 radish, the peppers and spices. When prudently used, they 

 are acceptable to the palate, cordial and stimulating to the 

 digestive organs. These four classes of alimentary princi- 

 ples, — the nitrogenous, hydro-carbons, carbo-hydrates and 

 inorganic, — are variously combined in the structure of our 

 vegetable and animal foods. They come to us in forms that 

 require important changes in texture to prepare them for 

 comfortable use, and next in importance to their abundant 

 supply comes the art of the cook, as exercised in the chemis- 

 ti"y of the kitchen. 



The art of cooking, as now developed, is a growth that 

 has come down to us from most ancient times. It has 

 attained its highest perfection among the French. The 

 chief cook in large hotels can command a salary equal to 

 those paid in other departments of skilled labor. He is a 

 true artist, a real benefactor of mankind. 



The kitchen is a very important department of the house 

 and home. It should be a laro^e room, well liijhted and ven- 

 tilated, supplied with a good range or stove, with all neces- 



