,
doing a moderate amount of work. Many articles of food are, however,
deficient in one or the other of these elements, and need to be
supplemented by other articles containing the deficient element in
superabundance, since to employ a dietary in which any one of the
nutritive elements is lacking, although in bulk it may be all the
digestive organs can manage, is really starvation, and will in time
occasion serious results.

It is thus apparent that much care should be exercised in the selection
and combination of food materials. The table on page 484, showing the
nutritive values of various foods, should be carefully studied. Such
knowledge is of first importance in the education of cooks and
housekeepers, since to them falls the selection of the food for the
daily needs of the household; and they should not only understand what
foods are best suited to supply these needs, but how to combine them in
accordance with physiological laws.

CONDIMENTS.--By condiments are commonly meant such substances as
are added to season food, to give it "a relish" or to stimulate
appetite, but which in themselves possess no real food value. To this
category belong mustard, ginger, pepper, pepper sauce, Worcestershire
sauce, cloves, spices, and other similar substances. That anything is
needed to disguise or improve the natural flavor of food, would seem to
imply either that the article used was not a proper alimentary
substance, or that it did not answer the purpose for which the Creator
designed it. True condiments, such as pepper, pepper sauce, ginger,
spice, mustard, cinnamon, cloves, etc., are all strong irritants. This
may be readily demonstrated by their application to a raw surface. The
intense smarting and burning occasioned are ample evidence of the
irritating character. Pepper and mustard are capable of producing
powerfully irritating effects, even when applied to the healthy skin
where wholly intact. It is surprising that it does not occur to the
mother who applies a mustard plaster to the feet of her child, to
relieve congestion of the brain, that an article which is capable of
producing a blister upon the external covering of the body, is quite as
capable of producing similar effects when applied to the more sensitive
tissues within the body. The irritating effects of these substances upon
the stomach are not readily recognized, simply because the stomach is
supplied with very few nerves of sensation. That condiments indu