WOMAN AND HOME SCIENCE. 45 



in the stove or furnace, — would not bo left to any writer's un- 

 iqualified recommendation or condemnation of this expedient. 

 In the kitchen, they could have a large hood over the cook- 

 stove to carry off the excessive vapors and fumes which saturate 

 the air, cloy the appetite, and prevent the healthy invisible per- 

 spiration, which may be even fatally arrested while one seems 

 to be in profuse perspiration. 



Why is it that our women are often overtasked and broken- 

 down in health ? Is it not in part through ignorance, such as 

 that now indicated, and, above all, through lack of real interest 

 and spirit in work — the degrading and dispiriting nature of all 

 labor that is pursued mechanically, with no lively participation 

 of intellect and soul, especially if it be confined in-door toil, and 

 with no end in view but the finishing of a day's task ? There 

 must be fresh air, and either an intellectual or a money inter- 

 est, to keep up one's vigor and spirit. All this woman lacks, for 

 the most part, as things are. She has nothing but affectional 

 motives, and these are often chilled and disappointed. 



In the good time coming, we shall have a thousand professors 

 of home science, and hundreds of thousands of lady-graduates 

 from our scientific schools. And it shall be said of the virtuous 

 woman, " she openeth her mouth with wisdom." She maketh 

 no fire in summer, but boileth her water in ten minutes by agi- 

 tation in a vessel turned by a wind-mill, after the manner of 

 Prof. Tyndall, in his hand experiment. She buyeth condensed 

 extract of meat and milk, and never seeth steak or milk-pan. 

 She sendeth her linen to the steam wash house. She scoureth 

 her woodwork with her own patent revolving spring-brush. 

 She useth enamelled paper plates and cups, like paper collars, 

 and throweth them away after every meal. She analyzeth sugar- 

 candy, and findeth deadly coloring matters, as red oxide of lead 

 and yellow sulphide of arsenic ; and she bringeth the confec- 

 tioner before the lady-justice of the peace. She discardetli all 

 but loose dress, and sweepeth not the streets. Her bonnet is 

 visible and protecteth from the sun. She inventeth a steam- 

 cook and an electric chambermaid, like unto a steam-man that 

 draweth a chariot. 



