eratured oven.
At the end of two or three hours, the ball, having sufficiently dried,
has formed itself into a thick outer peel which is removed, while the
heart which is very hard and thoroughly dry, is now grated on a clean
grater, and this flour has perhaps helped more specialists to serve
more sick babies than any other form of starch known. It is used just
as any other flour is used--wet up into a paste, made into a gruel,
which is boiled for twenty minutes before it is added to the milk.

Whey is sometimes used in the preparation of sick babies' food and is
prepared as follows:

To a pint of fresh lukewarm cow's milk are added two teaspoons of
essence of pepsin, liquid rennet or a junket tablet. It is
stirred for a moment, then allowed to stand until firmly
coagulated, which is then broken up and the whey strained off
through a muslin.

The heavy proteins remain in the curd, and the protein that goes
through with the whey is chiefly the lactalbumin.

CHAPTER XIX

THE FEEDING PROBLEM

A friend of ours who presides over a court of domestic relations in a
large city, recently told us that he believed much trouble was caused
in families--many divorces, occasioned, and many desertions
provoked--because improperly fed babies were cross and irritable and
so completely occupied the time of the mother, who, herself, knew
nothing about mothercraft or the art of infant feeding. Consequently,
the home was neglected and unhappy, quarreling abounded and failure,
utter failure, resulted. The children were constantly cross, and so
much of the mother's time was consumed in caring for these irritable,
half-fed babies, that the home was disheveled, the meals never ready,
the husband's home-coming was a dreaded occurrence, and he,
endeavoring to seek rest and relaxation, usually sought for it in the
poolroom or the saloon, with the usual climax which never fails to
bring the time-honored results of debauch--despair and desertion.

In the beginning of this book we paid our respects to the present-day
educational system which does not provide an adequate compulsory
course in which all women could be given at least a working knowledge
of home making and the care and feeding of the babies; so that
statement need not be repeated in this chapter. But we wish to add, in
passing, that ignorance is the basis and the foundation of more
unhappy homes, broken promises, panicky divorces, and shattered hop