LANTS and animals grow and work in nourishment or something from without some form, and therefore they must have in order to add to their substance, to form seed or to give energy with which to move about. This material, foreign to themselves, must be such as can, by them, be made a part of themselves.

Lessons from nature.

The grain of wheat has abundant food material for the little germ stored in the bulky seed cotyledon. This while dry and unacted upon is only passive or potential food, but when swollen by moisture and influenced by heat the diastase in the grain begins to change the starch into a soluble compound upon which the tiny plantlet can feed. For plants, like men, must have their food made soluble in order to pass through the cell walls to the protoplasm or living matter, which alone has power to assimilate to itself the substance it needs. By the time that that food is exhausted the young plant has grown large enough and strong enough to work its own way. By the aid of the energy from the sun it can take carbon from the air, nitrogen and other elements from the salts dissolved in water which it draws up through the roots. All this food material is external to the plant and is taken in through the surface only when it is soluble.

The plant, like the animal, can utilize only a certain quantity of food; given too much it struggles for a little, grows rank, as we say, is too slender to stand by itself, does not produce blossom and seed, and soon succumbs to disease. A plant starved shows little leafy growth, but soon blossoms and makes the best of the conditions to produce seed. It may be stunted, but it usually fulfills its purpose. But when the conditions are rightly balanced we see fine leafage, not too weak, and rich flowers bearing abundant seed,

The cultivation of plants, especially in the ordinary house, is one of the best ways of learning about foods and nutrition; the substances used are different, but the principles are the same in the case of plants or children.

The gardener studies his business and measures his success by the perfection of his plants.

Shall the mothers of the statesmen do less? Shall teachers neglect the food supply of their pupils, without which all their teaching comes to naught? The child is a young animal as well as a young scholar, and at an age when all other young animals eat almost constantly and sleep at least half the time in periods alternating with those of eating, this young creature goes to school in haste,-too often without suitable or sufficient breakfast,-sits in a fixed position, if not in a cramped one, breathes a more or less vitiated air for four or five hours a day with comparatively short intervals of exercise, and very little of that out of doors. No other animal would long survive such treatment.

Overstudy vs. underfeeding.

It is quite time that a vigorous protest should be made against the statement that overstudy is the cause of all, or most, the evils of school life. Overstimulation in study is probably possible only in the case of an insufficiently nourished scholar. The healthy, rosy-cheeked child is too much of an animal, contented with life, to be readily driven to overexertion in study. Every observant mother or teacher has noted the restlessness and the tendency to irritability and ill-temper shown by children when kept for even a short time from the accustomed meal. This condition of mind and body is not favorable for the acquisition of knowledge, and many a child has been called stupid when he was only hungry.

During the years covered by the period of student life the normal development of the body requires an excess of food, and if the brain is not to be developed at the expense of the body a jealous watch must be kept over the food of the young brain worker. If double work is given to a horse he is given extra feed. All work means expenditure of energy, and the only known source of human energy is in the food which is assimilated and made an integral part of the body tissues before it can be utilized. This fact is now so well recognized in athletic circles that a training table is as essential as boat or a running track, and it should be recognized by all educators. that good thinking, like good rowing, demands proper feeding. Animals take their food into a tube which,

with some widenings and contractions, passes through the body; but, as in the case of plants, the food taken is really only applied to the surface, for this tube has no opening into the body itself, and everything must be made soluble so as to pass through the cell walls, and only that is utilized.

Watchful care demanded.

The leaf of the plant is injured by too great heat, by poisonous gases, sulphurous.acid near manufactories, coal gas, etc. It shrivels up and cannot take in the food, although it is bathed in it. The walls of the digestive tube in animals are as delicate as the leaf and are injured by many things so that they cannot pass the food on to the other cells which are to grow by its means, and which, if they cannot get food, cannot do their share of the work and that part of the body suffers. It is only by keeping a healthy balance that a plant or animal can thrive.

The human animal has an added function, that of inventive and creative thought. It needs, therefore, still more care and attention to bring the human machinery to perfection and to keep it up to its best level. Being more delicately adjusted, it is more readily disturbed; greater knowledge and more constant care are needed to bring the human animal to perfection than to raise prize-winning plants.

It is because we do not believe this but hold that instinct is an all-sufficient guide, or that it does not matter in the least what outside influences are exerted, that we neglect this most important branch of education. It is only when we fully realize that our sole source of energy comes through the food we digest, not that which we eat, that we shall study the subject with sufficient thoroughness to become familiar with the details.

Men vs. cows.

There are some fifty agricultural colleges and experiment stations in the United States, costing many millions of money, for the study of the food of pigs, cows, and horses. A cow is worth, perhaps, on an average, $50. It is important that she should be well fed so that the most may be made of her capabilities.

A man is worth $3,000 to $300,000 dollars, measured by his capabilities, salary, etc. (5% of $3,000 $150, the yearly salary of a very igno rant man; 5% of $30,000-$1,500, a common salary of teachers, while $15,000 is a common sal

The office of food in the human body is to contribute material elements for its growth and repair and to furnish the power or energy for these processes and for all forms of human activity, walking, working, reading, thinking. This body lives, moves, works, and so wears out and needs repair, but it cannot be taken off and sent to the dressmaker, as our clothes are, nor can it be sent to the repair shop like an old locomotive. It must do its own repairing while its activities are still going on. It is a machine, but it is more,-it is a living, growing, working thing.

Indifference of the people.

The person who advocates this attention to food is, by universal consent, called a crank and very little attention is paid to him. Man has lived for centuries without a knowledge of carbohydrates and calories; why has it suddenly become so important to learn all these things? Moreover, man can go without food for a considerable time; he may eat one meal a day or four meals a day and it does not seem to make much difference. One reason for this mistaken idea in regard to the importance of food to the animal economy, to the human machine, is probably largely due to the fact that the body. has within itself reserves in order to preserve itself from the effects of this very abuse. The amount of fat contained in the various tissues is usually enough to keep the body warm for about eleven days without work. There is about one day's ration of glycogen-the animal carbohydrate-and the nitrogenous tissue which could be safely spared would carry it for some five days longer. So that a well developed, well-fed person can go without food for a meal or for a day now and then with indifference. Having done it once the young manor more often young woman-asks, "Why can I not do it again and again? It did not hurt me the least bit." It is true it did not destroy life, but is life all? Is not accomplishment to be considered? Was the day's work of as much value as it should have been? Was the whole week as profitable as it might have been? Was Was this young man or young woman able to think as clearly, to write as effectively? Was he or she as sweet tempered, as thoughtful for others, on that day or through the week as was desirable? The effect is sure to be felt at some time. A man cannot overdraw his bank account with impunity.

Importance of food supply for children.

For children, without the large reserves of the grown person, it is of the utmost importance to have the daily supply sufficient, espe cially during the school term. Therefore all the time and trouble taken to acquire a knowledge of the composition and comparative value of food will be more than repaid in the greater degree of health and comfort of the family and that at a cost which will leave a margin for intelligent enjoyment out of the usual income. Water in foods.

learned is the varying amounts of water in food materials as bought. It may seem that when potatoes are half a cent a pound and corn meal is three cents, that potatoes will be the cheaper food, but the potato is three-fourths water and one pound of potato starch will cost about four cents, while corn meal is only about one-tenth water and a pound of corn meal starch will cost about 3.3 cents. Moreover, the corn meal contains some fat, which is lacking in the potato. The potato must be looked upon as a watery food, which is the reason that no water is added to it in cooking, as is the case with the drier cereals. Meat is also a watery food, containing, when raw, about the same amount of water as the potato, 75%. On cooking some of this escapes in the form of steam if the meat is broiled or roasted, as juice if it is boiled. Hardly any solid food comes upon our tables which is not at least half water; nuts, figs, dates, crackers, and cheese being almost the only exceptions. Even dry bread is about 45% water; it is only the brown crust which contains less. Vegetables and fruits are mostly water, 85 to 90%, and even when cooked contain nearly as much. So that our diet is mainly water. If attention has not been called to this fact one is sure to exclaim, I know I do not take as much as three quarts of water. Let us see. One cup of coffee, cocoa, or tea, or a glass of milk or water at each meal will be one pound at least; twice this is more common, and most of us take another half pound during the day. Then in soup, gravies, sauces, etc., another half pound is easily accounted for. That will leave three or four pounds to be taken in the form of food. People who take as little as one pound of water usually eat watery food. Four to four and one-half pounds of cooked food are taken by most of us, and if this contains 75% of water it will yield three pounds or three and fourtenths pounds of water with dry food, abnor mally dry, as pop-corn and dates, crackers and cheese, much water should be taken.

The water serves as a solvent and a carrier. transmission of the substance may take place Sufficient dilution is necessary in order that the through the cell walls, and the pressure of the blood must be kept up in order to ensure good circulation. The drinking of a cup of hot water probably owes the effect of seeming greater

heat to this increased circulation and nutrition rather than to the actual heat it carries into the

Carbohydrates.

Next in order in quantity is starch, sugar, gums, the non-nitrogenous food which we include under the name carbohydrates, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It is the carbon in these substances which the body can cause to combine with the oxygen in the air breathed, thus to furnish heat for the day's work. All the cereals-wheat, corn, and rice contain about 70% starch. Potatoes and bananas 20%, some vegetables 4 or 5%. The manufactured sugar is nearly pure; beets contain 8 to 10% sugar and many fruits 4 to 6%, while all fruits and vegetables contain a few per cents of the other carbohydrates, which are supposed to be equally nutritious. But the heat of the body can be maintained without starch, as is seen in the arctic regions, by fat, which, pound for pound, gives 2.2 times as much heat as starch inside the body as well as outside. To a certain extent the two are interchangeable-more fat, less starch, and vice We do not yet know how far civilized man can go in this. The starchy foods are the cheaper and all the races and classes which are forced to live cheaply use the full quota of starch. All our penal and charitable institu⚫tions allow one pound or more of starch per day per person. The workman who cares more for eating than saving, on the other hand, uses more fat and less starch, taking potato rather than bread with his meat. The tendency among us all is to use fat and sugar rather than starch. Whether this tendency has anything to do with the prevalence of certain diseases is not yet clear.

versa.

The sources of fat are, first, the evident ones of butter, fat meat, and oil, but even lean meat contains 4 to 8% of fat in such intimate connection with the muscular tissue as not to be

apparent. Corn meal, oat meal, milk yield about 4%, while nuts, cocoa, and chocolate give 25 to 60% of fat.

Nitrogen in food.

But with water to dissolve and carry with it starch, sugar, and fat to burn, the body could not thrive without another element not given by any of these, namely, nitrogen. This in its various food-yielding forms is found in lean meat, egg, milk, cheese, the gluten of wheat, legumin of peas and beans, and many other animal and vegetable compounds.

If we use it in its secondary form, derived

from animals, it is the most costly food we have, at least five times as costly as starchy food, but it is essential and we must have it. It is not, however, essential that it should be in this expensive form. Its use is rather the result of habit and an acquired taste. Economic and hygienic value.

It will be seen that nearly all our foods are composed of a variety of substances and that it is important to know the approximate proportions of these if we are to give the family a well balanced diet.

For the person who must count the pennies, this knowledge is essential in order to keep a just balance in accounts and yet not rob the family. For the well to do, it is even more necessary, in order that the health of the family may not be jeopardized by a too rich diet. The more luxurious the fare, the greater danger that certain elements may be in excess or that the combinations will not be of the most healthful kind.

From all the wide range of articles which the earth affords a dietary can be made up which shall be sufficient for prices varying from seven cents a day upward, twenty cents a day being quite sufficient for a large company fed from the same table, and thirty to fifty cents a day furnishes abundance for the small family, with judicious buying. All else is extravagance, waste, or luxury, as, fruits and vegetables out of season.

The poor man spends from sixty to seventyfive or even ninety per cent of his total income on food alone. Families which have an income