“188 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1917, 
VII. SUGGESTIONS FOR A COURSE OF PRACTICAL FOOD 
STUDIES. 
By Henry E. Armstrone. 
(The following suggestions for a series of practical food studies are very 
similar in form and purpose to those given in the schemes accepted by the 
Association in 1889 and 1890. This scheme was offered to the Association, pre- 
cisely in the form in which it is now printed, at the Norwich meeting in 1907; 
the Committee of Section L suggested that it should be published in full but 
this recommendation was not adopted by the Committee of Recommendations. 
My object was to aid teachers, especially in girls’ schools, who desired to 
develop a logical, comprehensive laboratory course of instruction based upon 
food materials. At the time I stated that the scheme was not half complete : it 
needs elaboration, especially on the physical, botanical and biological sides; and 
had the slightest encouragement been given, I should have developed it. Its 
present belated appearance may perhaps serve to stimulate a few teachers to take 
up a line of work which is certainly of promise, if only it be pursued in a 
proper scientific spirit. My desire has been to see a scheme of instruction 
gradually. introduced into girls’ education which will make them. scientific 
observers and thinkers in relation to all home matters: if this position were 
gained, they would stand on an intellectual plane far higher than that they now 
occupy.) ; 
Stupy oF Foon. 
Ar the outset, children might be asked what they know about food—what people 
take as food—to draw up a list of foods, arranging the different kinds together 
according as they are vegetable, animal, etc.—to think what infants live on 
(milk and air); what is the simplest food we can live on when we have teeth 
(bread and water and air); that if butter or dripping (fat) be added to bread, it 
becomes improved both to taste and as food; and that bread and butter together 
with milk and water and air are a thoroughly satisfying food. 
After much talking about such matters, they should be led to write simple 
accounts of what they know or can find out by observation and inquiry about 
foods under heads similar to the above. It would be well to let them find out 
what animals generally live on, so that they may understand the distinction 
between carnivorous and herbivorous animals. : 
As it is possible to live on bread, air and water, bread may be studied 
thoroughly as a typical solid food. The answer to the question ‘ What is it made 
from?’ ‘Flour or wheat ’—would lead to the further question ‘ What is flour?’ 
Flour should then be made by each child—practically, as it is still made by 
savage races and as it was made before flour mills were invented—by pounding 
wheat in a mortar or crushing it with a rolling pin. The exercise should be 
carried out seriously and with scrupulous care, each child being made to weigh 
out a certain quantity of wheat, then to powder or crush it and to separate the 
flour from the bran by sieving through book muslin; the flour and bran should 
then be weighed separately and the percentage of each calculated and the loss. 
A record in writing of this work should be kept by each child. . 
In the course of the lessons, the production of wheat should be discussed— 
where and how it is grown. This would give an opportunity for geography 
teaching and for economic teaching, which might well be utilised: diagrams 
might be made to illustrate the consumption, yield per acre, price, imports and 
exports, etc. , 
The children should be set to examine and describe wheat—the average size 
and weight of the grains, their appearance, density, etc. They should also be 
set to grow it—to plant it in different ways, in dry and wet sawdust, in sand 
