116 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1153 



photographic methods employed by the Car- 

 negie Institution in the publication of the 

 Factor Tables and the List of Primes. Both 

 the author and the publishers deserve the grati- 

 tude of every lover of science in putting in 

 the hands of mathematicians results of such 

 permanent value. D. N. Lehmer 



ITniveksitt op California 



Feeding the Family. By Mary Swartz Eose. 



ISTew York: The Macmillan Company, 1916. 



Pp. xvii -j- 449, illustrated. 



Many factors contribute to the welcome 

 such a book as this will doubtless receive. 

 World conditions are forcing a searching anal- 

 ysis of food supplies. Any discussion of the 

 subject, however, whether for the purpose of 

 conserving existing supplies by reducing waste 

 or of increasing the supply by stimulating 

 production, must be based on an understanding 

 of the relation between food materials and 

 bodily needs, for the food requirement of 10,- 

 000,000 families is but a simple multiple of 

 the food requirement of one family. There is 

 a growing disposition, too, among those who 

 set for themselves serious tasks in life to be 

 restive \mder small ailments which curtail 

 working hours and reduce efficiency. There is 

 a demand, therefore, for a working knowledge 

 of personal hygiene, including simple, rational, 

 well-founded rules for eating. At the same 

 time great new avenues for instruction are 

 opening and home economics, including the 

 subject of foods, is being introduced in places 

 undreamed of a few years ago. It has been 

 made part of the instruction in universities 

 and primary schools and is being taught in 

 remote mountain regions by extension methods 

 and in crowded city tenements by visiting 

 housekeepers. This is creating a demand 

 among instructors for reliable handbooks. At 

 the same time it is creating a great body of 

 intelligent housekeepers in private homes and 

 in public institutions who are ready and anx- 

 ious to make those fine adjustments between 

 food supplies and family needs without which 

 nation-wide or world-wide campaigns for the 

 conservation of food must be largely ineffec- 

 tive. 



Those who approach the subject most intel- 

 ligently often find that they must use one 

 language — that of calories and protein — in 

 discussing bodily needs, and another — that of 

 bread and butter, or bacon and eggs — in plan- 

 ning meals or in buying food. Only the for- 

 tunate few who, of course, include the writer 

 of the book, use both languages with equal 

 facility. Most people need two-part diction- 

 aries of food, by means of which they can 

 change from the language of calories and pro- 

 tein to the language of bread and butter, and 

 back again, if necessary. Such dictionaries 

 are, to be sure, not entirely new. Many books 

 have given 100-calorie portions in terms of 

 common food materials and have recorded in 

 convenient form the food values of many com- 

 mon dishes. Years ago Mrs. Richards put 

 much of this material into chart form for use 

 in the kitchen. The time, however, was not 

 ripe then for such information and the plans 

 were never much elaborated. Now to meet 

 new needs Mrs. Eose has presented a large 

 number of carefully worked-out tables, the 

 fruit of years of study and of teaching. By 

 use of them the reader finds not only the 

 weight, but also the volume, of common foods 

 that it requires to furnish a definite amount 

 of nourishment. We find, for example, not 

 only that it requires 2J ounces of creamed salt 

 codfish, made after a recipe given in the book, 

 to provide 100 calories of energy and that 32 

 of the calories would be supplied by protein, 

 but also, what is of even greater value to the 

 housekeeper, that this amount would measure 

 about one-half of a cup. Again we find that a 

 familiar recipe for cottage pudding would 

 make two loaves, 6 by 4 by 1| inches in size; 

 that it would weigh 24.3 ounces ; that it would 

 supply 2,100 calories; and that a 100-calorie 

 portion would be a slice If by 2 by 2J inches 

 in size. In general, every provision is made 

 for adjusting food supply to food requirement. 



The food requirements of persons of diflier- 

 ent ages and occupation are carefully pre- 

 sented, and family dietaries are worked out. 



The subject of prices is subordinated to that 

 of food values. This is fortunate, for food 

 values are permanent while prices fiuctuate 



