WOMAN AND HOME SCIENCE. 43 



the recent doctrine of dialysis, while applied to so humble a use 

 as the separation of meat-brine into pure salt and excellent 

 soup, at the same time explains one of the profound mysteries 

 of animal and vegetable life. 



Woman's happiness, moreover, would be negative as well as 

 positive. Ignorance is full of fear and disgust towards inno- 

 cent things. That odorous fermenting pailful of waste from 

 the table is really an interesting mixture of many acids and 

 bases, entering into new combinations. That dreadful spider is 

 not poisonous, and has eight jewels of eyes in his head. That 

 medicine is no more a metallic poison than the oxydized metal, 

 lime, which makes your bones. " Do not be afraid of dirt, 

 young gentlemen," said a distinguished medical professor ; 

 " dirt makes bread, and bread makes the lips you kiss." 



Our lady bachelor of science would likewise have the pleas- 

 ure of exact economy in the use of materials. Woman, nat- 

 urally, is impulsive. If she thinks the biscuit require more 

 soda, she throws in enough to neutralize a gallon of the acid in 

 the milk, — " There, I'll see if I can't make the biscuit right 

 this time ! " Whether it be impulsiveness or ignorance, it 

 would be rectified by knowing the exact proportions in which 

 all substances combine. At least, there would be knowledge 

 enough to use a bit of cheap test-papor, as the chemist does, to 

 know exactly when an acid is neutralized. 



And the exactness of nature teaches habits of neatness, care- 

 fulness, attention. Scientific work is the most nice and precise 

 of any in the world, and inevitably affects all habits. 



But this is not all. There is an element of moral illustra- 

 tion, often humorous, that would be enjoyed by the scientific 

 housekeeper. There is a tragedy in a loaf of bread. Gluten is 

 a gummy, weak-minded individual, having too much nitrogen in 

 his composition, and exists in flour, hence in dough. He is 

 easily demoralized by the least association with that restless son 

 of a brewer. Yeast, or with that destructive rogue. Oxygen. 

 And when Gluten loses what little stability he has, his example 

 at once affects the sweet children of the Sugar family, also pres- 

 ent in the dough, until they become as ungovernable as alcohol 

 and carbonic acid, — in fact are changed into these. But Gluten 

 maliciously holds them as they struggle to get away ; and at 

 last Heat comes on with a vengeance, and striking Gluten stifif 



