enough that we merely
set food before our families in sufficient quantity to appease the
clamoring appetite. Children and adults may suffer from malnutrition
even though their consumption of food is normal in quantity three
times a day. No housewife is properly fitted for her task unless she
has some knowledge of dietetics.

[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros.
Teaching housewives food values. No housewife in these days need lack
the knowledge of dietetics which will fit her for her task]

Many a notable housewife who has perhaps never even heard of dietetics
has nevertheless a practical working knowledge of some or many of its
principles. There are traditions among housewives that we should serve
certain foods at the same meal or should cook certain foods together.
Often these time-honored combinations rest upon the soundest of
dietetic principles. On the other hand, many cooks feed their families
by a hit-or-miss method which as often as not violates all the laws of
scientific feeding, and which farmers long ago discarded in the
feeding of their cows.

[Illustration: Blackburn College students preparing dinner.
Fortunately girls may study dietetics in the school that teaches them
the law of gravity and the rules for forming French plurals]

Fortunately the girl who so desires may now learn something of these
feeding laws in the same school that teaches her the law of
gravitation or the rules for forming French plurals. Fortunately,
also, the girls of to-day seem inclined to undertake such study. It is
not too much to expect that the girl of the future will be able to set
before her family meals scientifically planned or food wisely and
economically purchased, well cooked, and attractively served. Nor is
it too much to expect that teachers will be able to do these things
and to instruct others how to do them. That this ideal requires
considerable and varied knowledge is clear at the outset. The serving
of a single meal involves: (1) knowledge of food values, (2) skill in
making a "balanced ration," (3) knowledge of market conditions, (4)
skill in buying, with special reference to personal tastes and
financial conditions, (5) knowledge of the chemistry of cooking, (6)
skill in applying chemical knowledge, (7) skill in adapting knowledge
of cooking to existing conditions, (8) knowledge of serving a meal and
practice in service.

The fact that a large proportion of deaths is directly due to
digestive troubles