of chilliness which cannot always be account¬ 
ed for by noting the temperature of the two 
apartments. 
The question is a complicated one at best» 
and on that account not a little difficult to 
answer correctly. Whatever influence diges¬ 
tion may have to increase or to lower the tem¬ 
perature of the body is but slight, anyway, 
comparatively speaking, and it must evident¬ 
ly be obscured by the working of the ordinary 
processes by which beat is continually genera¬ 
ted within the body and lost from it through 
the skin, the lungs, etc. The rapid flow of the 
blood serves, of course, bo regulate and equal¬ 
ize temperature by carrying heat from places 
where it happens to bo generated rapidly to 
those where it is being absorbed, as in the 
stomach during digestion; or whence it is 
being lost, as by evaporation and exhalation 
from the skin and lungs, or by radiation from 
the surface of the body. 
Strangely enough, the opinions of medical 
men have differed as widely as those of the 
community at large; and decidedly conflicting 
statements have been recorded by systematic 
observers. Daily variations in the tempera¬ 
ture of the body have been noticed, withal, 
which appear to he quite independent of food, 
and it is not. improbable that these regular 
changes may ha ve led some observers to at¬ 
tribute to the process of digestion appearances 
which have really no immediate connection 
with it. 
In ordinary life confusion is apt to arise 
when the question is debated, from the intro¬ 
duction of other considerations which are re¬ 
ally foreign to it, For example, hunger and 
fatigue do undoubtedly tend to depress the 
temperature of the body, while food and rest 
serve to correct this depression. But facts 
like these have really no direct bearing upon 
the question of the mere act of digesting food. 
Whatever amount of heat may be generated 
or absorbed during the process of digestion 
will naturally have its own particular influ¬ 
ence to slightly raise or depress, as the case 
may be, the bodily heat: and, on the other 
hand, there may be conflicting or compensat¬ 
ing actions due to the absorption of the di¬ 
gested food, or to its decomposition within the 
system, which will tend to mask or conceal 
the effect flue to simple digestion. Hence, even 
if there be a cause constantly acting so reduce 
the temperature of the body after a meal, it 
inay happen in some oases that the tendency 
to depression will be met and overcome by 
various influences which work to elevate the 
temperature. And it, may, consequently, be 
true in general that while an actual slight re¬ 
duction of temperature will ho felt by some 
individuals after eating, other persons w ill not 
feel this reduction, but may even experience 
a slight elevation of temperature, because, in 
their cases, the primary cause which serves 
to depress is weaker than the secondary ac¬ 
tions which serve to elevate the temperature. 
It is probable, moreover, that the amount 
of the depression may depend, in some 
measure, on the nature of the food, as well as 
upon the temperature of the food when eaten, 
in other words, it is not unlikely that, the in¬ 
tensity of the reduction may vary in different 
individuals and so be much more evident in 
Domestic Ccowomt} 
_CONDUCTED BY EMILY MAPLE. 
AN APPEAL. 
“Farmkrine” wn-ites that the Domestic De¬ 
partment of the Rural is in need of simpler 
recipes. She wants directions for cooking 
in a palatable manner, such food as is found 
upon the table of the average farmer—pork, 
potatoes, cabbage, beans, etc. We shall en¬ 
deavor to comply with this request and cor¬ 
dially invite contributions from all of our 
friends. It must be bo rue in mind, however, 
that even in the cooking of the simple foods 
such as our correspondent, refers to, ex¬ 
perience, care, trouble and time are requis¬ 
ite to ensure success. Everyone knows the 
difference between a mealy and a soggy 
potato, and yet persons well knowing how to 
window' of a cottage, where they had no storm 
windows. An industrious mother was mak- 
ing tor each of her two little girls a leaf needle- 
book. She had for the two a quarter of a 
yard of blue velvet, the same of silk for lining, 
the same of fine white flanne', two skeins of 
while silk floss, a hit of Bristol board and some 
narrow' satin ribbon. It was all cut in the 
shape of a leaf, the edges joined and button¬ 
holed together, and was very pretty. Mrs. 
Wilson was making a rug of inch-wide strips 
of cloth and flannel She had made them in¬ 
to a large ball and with a very large wooden 
crochet needle was making an oval rug quite 
pretty and tasteful to give an old pensioner. 
Some of the young people of Every-Day 
House brought out, with an air of pride a 
screeu that, they had been devising. It was 
orignafly an old clothes-horse, hut the wood 
was a rich, dark walnut, and on its edge, 
stretched tightly, was yellow, unbleached cot¬ 
ton, held in place by gilt nails over a row of 
we wish to remember, and by so doing we 
bring gladness to the lives of others with the 
dawn of what we pray may be to each and all 
of us a happy New Year. 
THE BLACK CURRANT—ECONOMY. 
GLADDYS WAYNE. 
Were the excellent qualities of the black 
currant generally known, I th’iilc it wou’d 
find a prominent place in every garden. It, is 
tliri ty, hnrdv ami productive, and entirely 
free from ' lie ravages of the currant worm. 
A few years ago Mr. Williams sent us some 
sprouts of this currant; they were set out 
through the m ddle of the garden, in close 
proximity to both the red and white currant, 
and though the currant worm yearly attacks 
both of these, it never molests the black cur¬ 
rant bushes, probably owing to the musky 
odor of the leaves. When the bushes first 
came into (tearing we were minded to destroy 
K| 
them, root and branch, not Liking the peculiar 
flavor of the fruit; but we have grown to 
like our black currants very much—not with¬ 
out cooking, however. Stewed (when ripe) 
and well sweetened, stewed after being dried 
in sugar, made into preserves or jelly, or 
canned, they are delicious No other fruit 
has that peculiar delicacy of flavor. Black 
currant jelly is beneficial in cases of sore 
throat. Ours are the real English currant; 
the fact gives us much pleasure, since it was 
once the occasion of n pleasant surprise to a 
valued friend who was visiting us. Upon 
tasting them, with a surprised exclamation of 
pleasure, he said they were the first real 
English currants that lie had seen since leav¬ 
ing England, years ago. Since then, on the 
rare occasions "f |,j^ visits, we always have 
in store a can of English currants to open in 
honor *f his coming, 
ONE ECONOMY. 
In buying it always “ pays” to get a good 
article. Many housekeepers, year after year, 
use tinware for sie ving, pickling, preserving, 
etc , not. feeling able to pay the difference iu 
price on porcelain. But. when we take into 
ennsid ration the fact that every year or two 
tin basins, stew pans, etc., are in this way 
spoiled, equal in cost to a good porcelain ket¬ 
tle or a granite-ware stew-pan that, with 
proper usage, would last for years (to say 
nothing of the injurious effect on health from 
such use of tin), it will readily be seen that 
the best is by far the cheapest. 
Something for Little Hands to do- 
A friend of mine has several children rang¬ 
ing from four to fifteen. She is quite an adept 
in planning amusements to occupy theirminds 
and also their little hands, which otherwise 
would tic troublesome. The other day 1 found 
her with five nice books made from paper flour 
bags, and the little ones sitting around a table 
■with a cup of paste in the center. Each one 
bad a book and was arranging pictures in it 
according to his or her taste. Even the fif¬ 
teen-year old stepped up and took a hand in 
the play. The pictures had been saved from 
AN OLD FRIEND FAILING.—FIG. 7. 
worn-out “picture books,”periodicals, papers 
and anything that was convenient for that 
some cases than in others, HowevorthiS may 
be, German investigators who have made ob¬ 
servations on the temperature of the stom¬ 
achs of dogs, at times when food which had 
been artificially wanned to the temperature 
of their bailies was being digested, have found 
that the contents of the stomach always un¬ 
dergo a certain depression of temperature 
during the process of digestion. 
Ill the light of these observations the sug¬ 
gestion has been made that t he mere physical 
fact of the dissolving of the albuminoid con¬ 
stituents of food, in the act of digestion, might 
account for the observed reduction of tem¬ 
perature. That is to say, it was suspected 
that when the albuminoids in the food are 
changed to the soluble “ eptones ” which 
pass into the blood and are absorbed by the 
system, a certain amount, of heat is absorbed; 
t. e. the heat is abstracted from the body and 
made latent, as the term is. 
Professor Maly has recently argued, further, 
that if this suspicion be correct, a similar re¬ 
duction of temperature would necessarily oc¬ 
cur outside the body when albuminoid mat¬ 
ters are subjected to the process of artificial 
digestion, so-called. To test ihe matter he 
has made experiments both on the artificial 
digestion of fibrin, and of coagulated albu¬ 
men, with pepsin; and on the digestion of 
starch-paste with extract of malt and with 
saliva, and he finds that there is actually a 
decided diminution of temperature in all of 
his experiments. It. appears, then, lx>tli that 
there is a reduction of temperature in the 
stomach after eating, and that there is a good 
and sufficient reason (or such reduction- The 
fact that some persons u re apt to feel cool 
after meals thus finds explanation and justifi¬ 
cation, and we can see more clearly than ever 
the merit of the old maxim which enjoins us 
to “ After dinner rest awhile.” 
| cook them properly will not take the trouble 
to do so. This “ too-much-trouble ” feeling 
iu the preparation of our every-day meals 
will have to lie done away with before we 
can cook oven pork, potatoes and beans 
palatably. 
THE KITCHEN CLUB ON THE HOLI¬ 
DAYS. 
ANNIE L. JACK. 
The Kitchen Club met here lietween Christ¬ 
mas and New Year’s, and discussed the merits 
of gifts. Every mother gave a sigh of satis¬ 
faction ; it seemed as if a load had been re¬ 
moved, and yet there was pleasure in the 
sigh ; for the children hud been so delighted. 
“Itis such a treat to heur them laugh over 
their treasures” said Mrs. Tompkins, whose 
Christmas tree never fails to be admired by 
young and old. “ 1 wish we had the faith of 
childhood in other things" said the minister’s 
little wife. “ Yes,” replied Miss MacLeod 
“ye could na mak our Jean believe Santa 
Claus might na come ” Euch lady 1 noticed 
hud some article of fancy-work with her, and 
all proved to tie little gifts for some friends, to 
be presented on New Year's Day. 1 said, 
laughingly, that I supposed it was because 
that da\ was my birthday, but I confessed to 
a weakness for New Year’s gifts above those 
of Christmas. While the Indies were at tea 
we discussed the blessing of giving, and each 
thought that life would be very dreary if de¬ 
prived of the pleasure of giving to those we 
love, and to those who need. 
Before the work was rolled up I took the 
liberty of looking at it, and found so many 
new and funny things that I took the trouble 
to jot them down. One lady was making 
sand bags to be covered with flanuel and laid 
over the cracks between the two sashes in the 
black braid. The center on both sides was a 
pretty design by the artist o* the family. One 
side was of ferns, lichens and all sorts of 
woody things copied closely from nature ; 
the other a bunch of pansies and rosebuds. 
Around this are pasted all sorts of flowers, 
leaves, birds and a motto on each side in gilt 
letters aloug the top. It took some taste and 
ingenuity and is pretty enough for a New 
Year's gift. In our case it was only fcran- 
forred from the makers to another member 
of the family who had admired but taken no 
part in the manufactory. Another lady 
visitor was making traveling bags of 
light canvas worked iu dark blocks, and lined 
with some strong goods. These are light, 
pretty and fashionable. Nellie Long put the 
last touches to a pretty footstool and cover 
done in crewel work of buttercups and d isies 
“with a com cockle thrown in,” l told her, 
as there were just enough of them to brighten 
without obtruding the decided blue. She told 
me proudly the design was her own, and Iud- 
mired her attempt at something original. 
The doctor's wife was busy knitting, mid for 
a long while we could not guess what the dark 
zephyr wools were for, so loosely knit in brown 
and dark blue. But while we were guessing 
she united the two oblong pieces in open 
crochet and pulled through a blue ribbon, fin¬ 
ishing each corner with a bow and ends. It 
was then found to be a covering for the feet 
of an invalid when lying on a sofa. 
I think 1 have described enough to show the 
readers of this paper that all the gifts were 
uot in Santa Claus’s pack, but that some were 
reserved for willing fingers to finish, and to 
give while the New Year’s wishes were fresh 
in the heart. It is a pleasant custom and 
should have a place in all our lives, remem¬ 
bering to give also of our abundance to those 
who ueed as well a3to the richer friends that 
purpose and would otherwise have been 
wasted or burned. “ Oh!” I thought, “ how 
many tired mothers iu our land could do the 
same if they would, and consider what a ben- 
flt as well as a pleasure it would lie to their 
children.” 
Fried Cakes, 
One quart of buttermilk, one heaping tea¬ 
spoonful of soda, one coffee-cup of sugar, one 
egg, shortening the size of a large egg, any 
flavor you like. If these are cooked nicely in 
hot lard they will not be “ fatty'” or tough. 
T. G. T. 
-- ♦♦♦- 
Use for Empty Tin Fruit-Cans. 
We are in the habit of saving these tins for 
household purposes and find them very con¬ 
venient. They are excellent tins for baking 
Graham or Indian bread iu, and we use them 
for that purpose in pa ference to other tins. 
The round slices are just the size, and the 
bread looks better und seems to taste better 
baked in them. 
To prepare the cans, after emptying out the 
fruit, stand opened end upon the hot stove, 
where it will soon unsolder and the top can 
be easily knocked off. I)o not let it get too 
hot or the side seam will unsolder also. 
“ Miserable Butter.” 
Many thanks to May Maple for giving us 
all hints as to the care of our milk and butter 
dishes. But there are times, when the weather 
is warm and the water likewise, w hen it seems 
impossible to make good butter. Will May' 
Maple please tell me which is the better way 
to make butter into a roll at once if solid, or 
to work partially, let stand and then make 
into a roll. Mrs. S. T. 
Chapped Hands. 
Persons who suffer with cracked hands 
wool 1 dii well to wash their hands in cold in 
stead of warm water. After each washing 
(or after the bands have been in water) 
wet the hands with a little weak vinegar and 
rub togethei until dry. Mary B. 
