Part 2

=Ice.=--It was formerly supposed that in the process of freezing all deleterious matter contained in the water was excluded. Several outbreaks of disease in New England led to an investigation, which showed that the ice used had been taken from ponds whose waters contained large quantities of sewage and other impurities. A change in the source of the ice supply resulted in an immediate check of the disease. Recent research has shown that typhoid bacilli, after being frozen in a block of ice for 103 days, may still be alive when released.

=Diseases Caused by Drinking Polluted Water.=--A polluted water supply affects not one, but usually many persons, and notable epidemics have resulted. In consequence, more diligent inquiry has been instituted by Municipal, State, and National Boards of Health, and the evidence adduced is of the most positive character. Typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, and diarrhœa have been clearly traced to the use of impure drinking water, and other related diseases are suspected of having a similar origin, although the evidence is not so conclusive.

=Appearance.=--A drinking water should be clear and bright. When shaken in a glass or bottle, bubbles should rise quickly and break immediately. If the bubbles move slowly, or seem to hang for some time in the water, they are probably due to the presence of decaying organic matter, and the water is of questionable purity. A slight cloudiness in the appearance of the water, following a rain, may be due to the presence of a small quantity of earthy matter, and not seriously affect its wholesomeness, but if the discoloration looks like that occasioned by a drop of milk the water should be avoided until carefully tested.

=Smell.=--A good water should have no smell. To this end, the cisterns or other receptacles must be kept perfectly clean. The purest and best waters will soon become foul if stored in unclean vessels.

=Taste.=--Water having a disagreeable taste is apt to be unwholesome. In order that we may derive from it proper nourishment, water, like other parts of our food, should be pleasant to the taste. And yet, the taste is by no means a satisfactory test of purity. The purest of all water is distilled water, which, by reason of the absence of all mineral matter and air, has a flat and insipid taste. The cleanest rain-water is also insipid. Boiled water is not much better, for while the boiling process may have destroyed all poisonous or noxious germs, and rendered the water absolutely wholesome, it also drove off the natural gases which gave to the water a pleasant taste. Boiled water may be re-aerated by pouring from an ordinary sprinkling can several times.

=Hard Water.=--Hardness is a serious drawback, whether the water be used for cooking, bathing, or for washing clothes. Food cooked by boiling in hard water is, as a rule, not so well prepared. Greens take on a gray color. Tea is never so good made from hard water. For cleaning the skin, hard water is not nearly so efficient as soft. Linens are never of a good color when washed in hard water.

Boiling hard water before using it improves it. A pinch or two of carbonate of soda, or of borax, is helpful in washing. A little table salt improves it for cooking most vegetables.

=Filtration.=--The following is a simple home-made filter. Take a large flower-pot, and soak it thoroughly in clean water. Stop up the hole in the bottom with a cork, in which insert a glass tube about three or four inches long. The top of the cork and tube should be nearly flat with the inside bottom of the pot. Put in a layer of sharp, clean sand about two inches deep, then two inches of small gravel, and three inches of well-burnt animal charcoal. On the top of this another layer of sand, and then another layer of gravel. The gravel, sand, and charcoal should be thoroughly washed before using. If the flow of water is too rapid, it may be checked by laying several flat pieces of glass upon the layers of sand. At reasonable intervals, the sand, gravel, and charcoal must be taken out, washed thoroughly, heated in the oven, and replaced in the pot, which must also be soaked in boiling water. This filter will remove nearly or quite all of the inorganic matter held in suspension in the water, but it is not to be depended upon to remove dangerous microbes and other germs of disease. If the water be thoroughly boiled for half an hour and cooled before being filtered, all danger will be removed.

There are many inexpensive filters on the market. They all become clogged, in a little while, and need to be cleaned or renewed. The cleaning of the one described above is so simple that any housekeeper could do it satisfactorily.

FOOD AND DRINK

=Why We Eat.=--During the early period of life, and until we reach maturity, food is necessary not only to repair the daily waste, but for the nurture and growth of the body. The intense bodily activity of childhood is attended with a large consumption of material and a great amount of waste. The food is converted into blood, which circulates through the arteries of the body, carrying the nutritive particles to the remotest parts, and returns through the veins, conveying the waste and worn out matter to be expelled from the system.

=Quantity of Food.=--Placing the average weight of an adult man at one hundred and forty-four pounds, the average daily amount of food and drink needed would be six pounds, or about one-twenty-fourth the weight of his body. Food should be taken in sufficient quantity to repair the waste, and no more. Most persons habitually eat and drink more than they need, while a few eat less than they should. Those who lead very active lives, or live much in the open air, require more food than the old, the inactive, and the sedentary. Habit, too, has much to do with the quantity of food taken. Over-indulgence in eating is the fruitful cause of a long train of evils. The appetite is pampered by tempting viands, and the stomach is overtaxed with work. The sensation of hunger is Nature’s demand for food; the lack of such sensation should suggest abstinence.

=Mixed Diet.=--In infancy the digestive powers are weak and undeveloped, and food must be taken in its simplest form. Milk alone, at this period of life, seems best adapted to sustain life and growth. After this period has been passed, no single article of food furnishes all the principles necessary to support the growth, repair the waste, sustain the strength, and preserve the health. A mixed diet, therefore, becomes necessary.

=Feeding Children.=--There is no greater error in the management of children than that of giving them animal diet too early. That portion of the digestive apparatus intended to dispose of this kind of diet is in an embryonic condition up to a certain age, and in the efforts of digestion, inflammation, possibly convulsions and death, may follow as the immediate result.

Impaired digestion acquired in childhood is apt to continue through life. The structure of the human body being so largely dependent upon good, wholesome food taken at proper intervals, the importance of laying a good foundation in childhood needs no argument.

The practice of allowing children to eat at short intervals through the day is exceedingly deleterious. Cakes, nuts, fruit and other good things, in carefully regulated quantities, should form a part of the regular meal, when the children are old enough to have them, and should not be eaten between meals. When it is remembered that one-half of all the children born into the world die before reaching the age of sixteen, the importance of children’s diet becomes apparent.

=Selection.=--In the selection of food, reference should be had to climate, season, occupation, and suitability. The races of the far North subsist largely on the blubber of seals and other fatty substances. In the winter season, persons living in the temperate zones require more of the heat-producing foods, and in summer, fruits and vegetables are more largely used. The man who leads an active out-door life consumes more oxygen, and requires not only more food, but of a kind that will rapidly build up muscle and impart strength. And not the least consideration, in the selection of food, is that of suitability or adaptation to the individual’s condition or peculiarity. “What is one man’s meat is another man’s poison,” says the old proverb. Most persons have found that certain fruits or vegetables or other articles of diet, which are generally considered wholesome, do not agree with them. It is important that each individual should study his peculiarities, in this respect, and abstain from eating or drinking those things which experience has shown will produce discomfort.

Happy is the man whose digestion is so perfect that he is never reminded that he has a stomach. But even those who cannot boast of such enviable powers of digestion, may yet, by a proper amount of exercise and the regulation of their diet, build up health and strength, and lead lives of usefulness and happiness, free from the many ills growing out of improper eating.

=Proper Food.=--Life is conditioned upon the proper supply of food. Men may, and do, exist upon very unsuitable food. To be able to do a good day’s work within the hours of a reasonable working day is every man’s birthright. Many men, like Esau of old, sell their birthright for a mess of pottage. Unlike him, however, they are not pressed by stress of hunger, but, merely to please the palate for five minutes, they burden the digestive organs for five hours, and repeat the process day after day. The comparison, therefore, is rather complimentary to Esau.

=Constituents of the Body.=--As already remarked, a large part of the human body is water. The body of a man weighing one hundred and fifty pounds contains less than fifty pounds of solid matter. The blood, brain, and nerves are about eighty per cent water; the muscles, nearly eighty per cent; and even the bones and the teeth contain a large percentage of water. Man may be deprived of solid food for a day or more without suffering, and, in some instances, persons have subsisted for several weeks on water alone, but to be deprived of water for ten or twelve hours causes much suffering.

The animal and vegetable kingdoms supply the organic substances which constitute a large part of the material commonly known as food, and which sustain the body in life and strength.

In addition, various inorganic substances enter into the human structure, prominent among which are salt, lime and iron. Salt is so important to animal life that herds of wild animals have been known to travel many miles to the salt-licks, or springs, in search of it. Some persons, from habit, use it to excess in seasoning their food. Lime and iron are taken into the body through the food. Iron forms about one part in a thousand of human blood.

=Classification of Foods.=--For increasing weight and producing heat, the fatty portions of meat, butter, and lard, together with wheat, Indian corn, and sugar, are best adapted; for muscle-making, lean meat, peas, beans, oatmeal; for brain and nerves, shell-fish, lean meats, peas, and beans. Those who lead an active, bustling life, especially if they take an abundance of out-door exercise, will naturally crave strong food in unstinted supply. The busy brain-worker, who is housed all day, and scarcely rises from his chair, needs to be much more careful in his diet. Coarse bread, lean meats, and fruits should constitute his chief dependence, with very limited use of butter, oils, and sugar.

Proper digestion depends upon the power of appropriating the food supplied, and this, in turn, upon the needs of the system. The best of food cannot be properly digested when it is not needed. All that the system requires will be used, and the rest will be cast out by the organs of excretion, which are often overtaxed, and the vital forces wasted, in the effort. The liver especially is burdened in its effort to carry off the excess of carbonaceous matter from the blood, and biliousness is the result. On the approach of warm weather, when the air has less oxygen to consume the food, this is particularly true.

=Quantity.=--We should eat to live, not live to eat. More people suffer from over-eating than from eating too little. Many thin people are large eaters, and stout people are often small eaters. The young generally eat more than the old. Not only are their powers of digestion better, due in part to the great amount of exercise they take, but they need food for growth, as well as to repair the waste. Franklin’s prudent rule was to leave off eating with a good appetite.

Economy of the life forces requires that each person should strive to find out just how much food he requires to support his strength and repair the waste. One ounce more than is required is a triple waste,--a waste in the original cost, a waste of muscular force in digesting it, and a waste of nerve and vital force in getting rid of it.

=Cereals and Their Food Value.=--Dr. H. W. Wiley, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry in the United States Department of Agriculture, in speaking of the substitutes for meat, says: “In so far as actual nourishment is concerned, the very cheapest and best that can be secured is presented by the cereals, viz., Indian corn, wheat, oats, rye, rice, etc. These contain all the nourishment necessary to supply the waste of the body and the energy and heat necessary to all animal functions and hard labor, in a form well suited to digestion, and capable not only of maintaining the body in a perfect condition, but also of furnishing the energy necessary to the hardest kind of manual labor. The waste material in cereals is very small, and, as compared with that in meats, practically none at all. In fact, the ordinary wastes, such as the bran and germ, are among the most nutritive components of the cereals, and both health and economy would be conserved, as a rule, by their consumption, instead of rejecting them as in the ordinary process of milling. The ordinary cereals of commerce contain only about ten per cent of waste, and this is an exceedingly small proportion, as compared with the percentage in meats.

“If meats should be used more for condimental purposes, as in the making of soups, stews, etc., and not more than once a day, as one of the staple articles of the table, it would be better, in my opinion, for the health and strength of the consumer, and especially would it be a saving in the matter of household expenses.

“It is well known that men who are nourished very extensively on cereals are capable of the hardest and most enduring manual labor. Meats are quickly digested, furnish an abundance of energy soon after consumption, but are not retained in the digestive organism long enough to sustain permanent muscular exertion. On the other hand, cereal foods are more slowly digested, furnish the energy necessary to digestion and the vital functions in a more uniform manner, and thus are better suited to sustain hard manual labor for a long period of time.

“The cereals contain all the elements necessary to the nutrition of the body, having in themselves the types of food which are represented by the fats, the nitrogenous or protein bodies, and the carbohydrates. In addition to these, they contain those mineral elements of which the bony structure of the body is composed, viz., lime and phosphoric acid. If, therefore, man were confined to a single article of diet, there is nothing which would be so suitable for his use as the cereals. Starch and sugar are primarily the foods which furnish animal heat and energy, and hence should be used in great abundance by those who are engaged in manual labor. The workingmen of our country, especially, should consider this point, and accustom themselves more and more to the use of cereals in their foods. When properly prepared and properly served they are palatable, as well as nutritious, and their judicious use in this way would tend to diminish the craving for flesh, which, however, it is not advisable to exclude entirely from the diet. By persons whose habits of life are sedentary, requiring but little physical exertion, starch and sugar should be eaten more sparingly.”

=Preparation of Foods.=--No country equals our own in the abundance and quality of materials for the table, and probably no other compares with it in the ignorance and carelessness displayed in its cooking. A large part of the sickness, discomfort, and unhappiness of life finds its source just here. In many well-to-do families the whole matter is relegated to ignorant and incompetent servants whose only interest in the household is of a financial character, and that is entirely one-sided. The mistress is often more ignorant on this subject than the servant, and the “queen of the kitchen” reigns supreme.

Among the middle and lower classes, where the mistress is herself the cook, the results are no better. Being without proper early training, or growing up with the idea that it is not genteel to work, she comes to her task wholly unprepared, and an ill-fed, sickly family is the result. In many cities and towns, cooking schools are found, but the graduates do not compare with those who graduated from their mothers’ kitchens, in the days when domestic labor was respected. The mind of the ambitious cooking-school graduate is too often concerned with the pretty pastries and dainty desserts that please the eye and pamper the appetite, instead of mastering the art of properly preparing the bread, meat, and vegetables, and the other substantial things.

=Bread.=--So important a part does bread play in the physical economy that it is often called the staff of life. In cities and towns and in many country villages the baker supplies the general need. Yielding to the popular demand for white bread, he uses flour that has been robbed of its most nutritious properties, and introduces unwholesome substances to make it light and white. The best bread is that in which the starch cells are most completely burst. The making of wholesome, palatable, home-made bread is becoming a “lost art” even among farmers’ wives and daughters. The corner grocery and the baker’s wagon furnish the freshly-baked loaf, the housewife is spared some trouble, and the household loses what should be one of the most healthful, nutritious, and appetizing elements of the daily supply of food. In parts of the South and West, the large use of hot bread is the cause of much indigestion and ill health.

=Meats.=--Broadly speaking, there are two methods of treating meats. By the first, it is the aim to keep the juices within the meat, as in baking, broiling, and frying. By the second, the object is to extract the juices and dissolve the fiber, as in the making of soups and stews. In order to imprison the juices and thus develop the flavor, the meat must be subjected to intense heat for a short time, so as to coagulate the outer layers of albumen, and afterward a more moderate heat should be employed to complete the cooking. To extract the juices, meat should be cut into small pieces, put into cold water, and slowly raised to the boiling point.

Roasting is probably the best method of cooking meats, especially large, thick pieces. Frying is the worst method, as the heated fat penetrates the meat, dries and hardens it, and renders it indigestible. The American frying-pan is, beyond question, the most deadly instrument that can be named. The sword may claim its thousands, or even its tens of thousands, but the frying-pan numbers its victims by the millions. And yet the skilled French cook robs even this destructive implement of its terror, and furnishes the table not only with meats but with whatever else has been fried, free from soaking grease, finely flavored, and above all, thoroughly digestible. The fault must therefore be ascribed to the cook, and not to the frying-pan.

In an address on “Home Economies Among the Poor People of New York,” the Rev. Dr. William S. Rainsford declares that living expenses are entirely too high. “The poor families of New York are in a tight place. Food is not so cheap as it should be. Fish, for instance, should be sold in New York for half its present price.

“Because of these things it is growing more and more difficult for young persons to marry. You have no idea how dangerous this is.

“Another reason for suffering among the poor is that the girls don’t know how to cook. One of the best ways to hold even a fairly good man--not a blackguard, but an average man--is to know how to cook.

“This whole country is cursed by bad cooking. It is worse in the rural districts. It makes my heart sick to see the beautiful children, up to ten years, of the Tennessee and Carolina regions, with the shade of frying-pans spreading over their faces, killed by grease--vicious and expensive grease.”

In commenting upon the above, a prominent daily says: “Dr. Rainsford is by no means the first man to hold that bad cooking is responsible for many of the sins that men commit. It is well known that a disordered stomach has a corresponding effect upon the brain, causing men to hold views and commit deeds which they would think of only with horror under normal conditions; but this class of missionary work, as it really is, has been much neglected by reformers in the past. They are giving it more attention now, and the cooking-schools, despite the ridicule heaped upon them by the comic writers, are doing good work toward raising the standard of American cooking.”

=Veal and Pork.=--These are regarded as less wholesome than beef or mutton. Both should be well cooked, and ham, sausages, and other forms of pork should never be eaten raw or imperfectly cooked, on account of the danger of introducing the animal parasite which produces in the human body a serious and painful disease known as trichiniasis.

=Superfine Flour.=--Chemists tell us that the process of bolting removes from the flour not only the outer woody fiber, but also the lime needed for the bones; the silica for hair, nails and teeth; the iron for the blood; and most of the nitrogen and phosphorus required for muscles, brain and nerves; and leaves only the starch which supplies fat and fuel.

Experiments made upon animals show that fine flour alone, which is chiefly carbon, will not sustain life for more than a month, while unbolted flour supplies all that is needed for every part of the body. Wholesomeness and nutrition are sacrificed to that which pleases the eye, alike by the baker and the housewife, so that the fragrant, appetizing bread of our grandmothers is almost unknown.

=Potatoes.=--Potatoes are largely composed of starch, which supplies only fuel for the capillaries. Analysis shows that they contain only one part in one hundred of muscle-making material, and less than that of phosphorus for brain and nerves.

=Animal Food.=--Many vegetarians denounce the use of all animal food as constituting an unnatural diet, oppose the slaughter of animals on moral grounds, and declare that vegetables, fruits, and nuts furnish all the elements necessary to the growth, strength, and health of the body.