HOME ECONOMICS AND EDUCATION 637 



made by dissolving artificial vanillin in alcohol contain no color of 

 themselves, and to supply it caramel is commonly employed. Car- 

 amel may be detected in artificial extracts by shaking and observ- 

 ing the color of the resulting foam after a moment's standing. The 

 foam of pure extracts is colorless. If caramel is present a color per- 

 sists at the points of contact between the bubbles until the last 

 bubble has disappeared. The test with lemon extract is a solution 

 of lemon oil in strong alcohol. To test a sample place a teaspoon- 

 ful in a glass and add three or four spoonfuls of water. The result 

 is at first a marked turbidity and later the separation of the oil of 

 lemon on the top of the water. If the sample remains perfectly 

 clear after the addition of water, or if a marked turbidity is not pro- 

 duced, it is a low-grade product and contains very little, if any, oil 

 of lemon. 



In Bulletin 100 of the Bureau of Chemistry a number of 

 simple chemical tests for formaldehyde, salicylic acid, copper, dyes 

 and glucose and other adulterants are given. Also there are tests 

 for milk, bleached flour, starch pastes and spices. A few chemicals 

 and a glass funnel are about all that is needed to carry out these 

 tests. (Bur. Chem. Bui. 100.) 



RATIONAL FEEDING OF MAN. 



The farmer's wife of all housekeepers should have the easiest 

 time in planning plain but wholesome meals, for she lives in the 

 midst of a wealth of the most desirable foods. Milk and cream, 

 butter, eggs, good vegetables and some fruits are or should be always 

 at her command. It is very poor economy for the persons living 

 on a farm to sell eggs and milk and use the money for buying meat. 

 It is cheaper, and better for the family welfare, to keep a generous 

 quantity of the eggs and milk for home consumption, and if neces- 

 sary let them take the place of much of the meat now used in such 

 large amounts. 



Dietaries and Dietary Standards. The information gained 

 from a study of the composition and nutritive value of foods may be 

 turned to practical account by using it in planning diets for differ- 

 ent individuals or classes of individuals or in estimating the true nu- 

 tritive value of the food actually consumed by families or individ- 

 uals. By comparing the results of many such investigations with the 

 results of accurate physiological experimenting it is possible to learn 

 about how much of each of the nutriments of common foods is need- 

 ed by persons of different occupations and habits of life, and from 

 this to compute standards representing the average requirements for 

 food of such persons. 



Methods of Making Dietary Studies. During the last twenty 

 years much of this practical application of the chemistry of food has 

 been made in the study of actual dietaries. Much work of this kind 

 has been done in England, Germany, Italy, Russia, Sweden, and 

 elsewhere in Europe, and in Japan and other Oriental countries. 

 Within the past dozen years extensive studies have been made in 

 the United States. The simplest way of making such inquiries is 

 to find out what kinds and quantities of food are used during a given 



