PART IV 



HOME ECONOMICS AND EDUCATION. 



HOME ECONOMICS. 



THE subject of Home Economics may be treated under three 

 main heads. (1) Food; (2) Shelter, and (3) Domestic 

 Relations. Food is necessary to all animal life to build up 

 the body and supply bodily heat and energy. It includes 

 besides a study of the nourishment necessary in health and a further 

 consideration of those food materials useful when bodily vigor is 

 lacking, in convalescence or disease. Under this head comes also a 

 study of remedial foods and medicinal drugs. 



Shelter is necessary to protect the body from extremes of heat 

 and cold, or the fury of the elements and thus to conserve the body 

 heat and energy derived from food ; and further to protect from dis- 

 ease. Under this head are considered problems of proper housing 

 and, to a limited extent, proper clothing. 



Domestic relations promote and conserve the happiness of in- 

 dividuals in life and their usefulness to their families and the com- 

 munity in general. Under this head such subjects as home culture, 

 reading, recreation, children's needs, schooling and the broader 

 community interests in reading clubs, good roads, telephone service 

 and women's institutes are to be discussed. 



FOOD AND ITS ELEMENTS. 



The problem of proper nutrition has always been of great im- 

 portance, yet scientific study of this subject is comparatively recent. 

 Food investigations have been carried on in Europe for some three- 

 quarters of a century, and for a less time in the United States and 

 Canada. In recent years the development of this subject has been 

 very rapid; a large number of investigations have been carried on 

 under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture, the Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Stations, and various educational institutions, and 

 many facts of interest and importance have been learned. It seems 

 desirable, therefore, to summarize this information, and, so far as 

 possible, to interpret the results in such a way as to show their prac- 

 tical application. Constant use has made all so familiar with or- 

 dinary foods that they seldom realize how complicated they are ; yet 

 a thorough understanding of them takes each person far, not only 

 into chemistry, but into physics and physiology as well. 



Chemical Composition of the Body and of Food. The chemi- 

 cal substances of which the body is composed are very similar to 

 those of the foods which nourish it. They are made up of the same 



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