472 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



particularly active among a large number of cooking schools is of 

 course natural, but it is scarcely less so among schools of medicine. 



That the time for the development of these inquiries is especially 

 opportune is shown by the use made of the results in the teaching of 

 what is called domestic economy, or household economics. This rep- 

 resents a pedagogic movement of greater import than many realize. 

 The movement is coming in response to a popular aspiration, but it 

 has the earnest support of many of our leading educators, not a few 

 of whom are emphatic in the expression of their belief in the wisdom 

 of the popular demand and the possibility of making such instruction 

 very useful, especially in courses for girls and young women. Educa- 

 tional experience shows that a certain time is required to bring any 

 new subject first into scientific and then into pedagogic form. The 

 science of food and nutrition has already assumed reasonably clear 

 and accurate scientific form and is being rapidly brought into pedagogic 

 form. 



CONCLUSION. 



From modest beginnings, with the aid of private individuals, these 

 investigations under the auspices of this Department have assumed a 

 magnitude quite out of proportion to their actual cost. By the exten- 

 sive cooperation of individuals and institutions of various kinds with 

 this Department a large amount of valuable work is being done in a 

 systematic way, the results of which are made available to the public. 

 In the judgment of competent experts it is more thorough in its sci- 

 entific methods, more extended in the scope and amount of investiga- 

 tion, and more useful in the distribution and practical application of 

 its results than any other inquiry of the kind ever undertaken in this 

 country or in Europe. A very recent statement by a European investi- 

 gator is to the point here. Dr. P. O. Smolenski, a well-known Russian 

 authority on these subjects, has latety published in the Russian lan- 

 guage, as an official document, an account of the nutrition investigations 

 above described. He details the development of the inquiry, describes 

 the methods, and cites the principal results. In commenting upon the 

 inquiry of this kind in the United States, he lays especial stress upon 

 both the amount and quality, in both of which he considers that the 

 American investigators are already in advance of those in Europe. 

 He refers to the small amount of public money expended for the pur- 

 pose, and finds an explanation of the success in cooperative effort, and 

 says that it is due to the great energy, the expert skill, and the 

 remarkable organizing power of Americans. 



