Victorian London - Publications - Etiquette and Advice Manuals - The Scholars' Handbook of Household Management and Cookery, by W.B. Tegetmeier, 1876

This page is part of the Victorian Dictionary ... explore the site!

If you enjoy www.victorianlondon.org why not ...

WITH AN APPENDIX OF RECIPES USED BY THE TEACHERS OF THE NATIONAL SCHOOL OF COOKERY

R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
BREAD STREET HILL,
QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.

THE present work was written at the request of THE SCHOOL BOARD FOR LONDON. It was designed to supply a want which has long been felt by practical teachers; that of a scholars' handbook on the general principles on which the processes of Cookery and the sanitary management of a home depend.
No work on the subject at present exists which can be advantageously placed in the hands of the pupils in ordinary schools. A mere collection of recipes, however valuable in themselves, does not constitute a book fit for use in schools, where the pupils should be instructed in the first principles adapted to all cases, and not have the memory burdened by details applicable only to each individual case. The "Manual of Domestic Economy,"(A Manual of Domestic Economy, by W. B. Tegetmeier. Ninth Edition. Hamilton and Adams, 1875.) published by the Author for the use of students in female Training Colleges, is adapted for the instruction of teachers, by whom it has been used with so [-6-] much success that Her Majesty's Commissioners, appointed to Investigate the Education in Mining Districts, in their Report on the Industrial Schools founded by Messrs. Baird at the Iron Works at Gartsherrie, stated that "The girls, in three months, can be taught plain cooking, washing, and cleaning, enough to prepare them for service, or to make them useful to their mothers at home. They are all instructed in Tegetrneier's 'Domestic Economy' at school, so that their minds have been directed to many useful principles. On going to service after such a course, a girl would probably get 1l. more wages for the first half-year's service."
The value of the present work has been greatly increased by an Appendix of upwards of 150 recipes prepared for the use of those teachers of the NATIONAL TRAINING SCHOOL OF COOKERY, South Kensington, who inaugurated the teaching of Cookery at the Cookery Centres, established by the SCHOOL BOARD FOR LONDON. For the permission to use these recipes the author has to express his sincere thanks.

CHAPTER VII.
FLOUR: ITS CONSTITUENTS, STARCH, SUGAR--BREAD- MAKING-PASTRY, ETC page 47

[-9-] PART II .- HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT.
CHAPTER XI.
THE HOME: CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO HEALTH page 66

CHAPTER XII.
WATER SUPPLY: QUALITIES OF WATER, INFLUENCE ON HEALTH, WASHING, COOKING ETC. page 72

CHAPTER XV.
LIGHTING: CANDLES, PETROLEUM, BENZOLINE, AND GAS LAMPS, THEIR MANAGEMENT, ETC. . page 85

RECIPES ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL SCHOOL OF COOKERY FOR THE USE OF THE LONDON SCHOOL BOARD COOKING SCHOOLS page 103

    1. Milk is almost the only example of a substance I which is to be regarded as a naturally prepared food; other articles of diet serve other purposes. Seeds grow, plants and animals live; but milk is expressly formed for food, and for food alone.
    2. The young animal fed on milk grows or increases in weight daily. It forms or secretes several substances, such as the saliva of the mouth, the bile of the liver, the tears from the eye, &c.; it keeps itself warm, and exercises its strength in moving the limbs; all of which it is enabled to accomplish only by means of materials derived from the milk which is its sole food.
    [-12-] 3. Hence, as milk supplies every requisite for the body, and enables a young calf to grow into a heifer and a baby into a child, we may regard it as a model food; it is, in fact, the most perfect food that exists in nature.
    4. It is desirable, therefore, to examine milk and ascertain the materials of which it is composed. A very large proportion of milk consists of water, which is necessary to supply the fluids of the body.
    The cream which rises to the top when the milk is allowed to stand at rest consists of fat, which is chiefly consumed or burnt away in breathing, and maintains the warmth natural to the young animal, and, like the coal in a steam-engine, is the source of the force or strength that it exercises; when more cream is taken than is required for immediate use it s stored up in the body in the form of fat.
    If milk is allowed to become sour the solid part separates in the form of curd. It is this portion which supplies the materials for the growth of the flesh, skin, hair, heart, lungs, &c., of the young animal, and for replacing the daily loss arising from the wearing out of the different parts of the body.
    The whey, or liquid left after the separation of the curd, contains dissolved in it salt and other saline bodies necessary for digestion, and the earthy materials of which the bones are formed. It also contains some sugar, which acts like the Cream in keeping up the warmth and maintaining the strength of the body.
    5. In preparing our food we must endeavour to imitate as far as possible the composition of milk; for any one simple substance, such as starch, arrowroot, fat, gelatine, &c., which only fulfils one of the [-13-] purposes required in our food will not atone support life; hence it is necessary we should arrange the articles of food according to their uses.
    6. The substances that when eaten go to supply the materials of our bodies, and in this respect resemble the curd of the milk, are sometimes termed flesh- forming foods; and, from containing nitrogen, are sometimes called nitrogenous; but as they resemble white of egg (albumen) in many properties, they are better termed albumenoid, or albumen-like.
    The most important albumenoid articles of our food are the solid parts of the flesh of animals, the curd of milk, which when dried becomes cheese, the albumen of eggs, gelatine, the gluten of flour, and the curdy matter that forms a large portion of many seeds, as peas, beans, &c.
    7. The foods that are used to keep up the warmth natural to the body, and by being consumed in the breathing are the source of the strength we exercise, are sometimes termed warmth-giving foods; as they contain a great amount of carbon or charcoal they have also been termed carbonaceous; and as they resemble oil in being combustible they are frequently termed oleaginous foods.
    The most important of these foods are fats, oils, starch, sugar, gum, and the softer and more digestible fibres of plants.
    8. Many of the articles used as food do not contain a proper proportion of these two kinds of substances, and in economical cooking it is desirable that the defects in one article of diet should be supplied by using it with some other which contains that which is wanting in the first.
    [-14-] For example, rice and potatoes consist chiefly of starch, and of themselves are bad foods unless combined with fatty and albumenoid matters; therefore we endeavour to use rice in puddings with milk, eggs, and butter, which supply all that is wanting, and it thus becomes a valuable article of food. Potatoes are most useful and economical if eaten with milk, fat meats; alone they are barely able to support life and cannot sustain health and strength. Beans, which are chiefly albumenoid, are eaten with bacon. Bread, which is wanting in fat, with butter or bacon, &c. &c.

    9. Meat, or the flesh of animals used for food, consists of several very distinct substances, each of which possesses different qualities. Some of these substances are hardened, others softened by heat; some dissolved, and others rendered tough by boiling water. It is therefore necessary to understand the nature of these different substances, in order to perform the different operations of cooking in the best and most economical manner.
    10. If we take some small shreds of lean meat and wash them repeatedly in clean water, rubbing them at the same time, we shall wash away all the soluble part, and at last there will remain nothing but some white threads which constitute the fibrous part of the flesh of the animal from which they were obtained. We could in this manner obtain about fifteen pounds from every hundred pounds of flesh. This substance of which these threads are composed is termed fibrin; it is an albumenoid (6) article of food. Fibrin also exists dissolved in the blood of [-16-] living animals; and when the fresh blood of a pig or other animal is stirred, as is done in making black puddings, the fibrin separates and adheres to the stick in long fibres.
    The action of heat on fibrin is very important. It is hardened and contracted by a heat as great as that of boiling water: this is easily shown by pouring some perfectly boiling water on the threads obtained by washing meat, or by cutting a thin shred of meat in the direction of the fibres, boiling it for a few minutes, and then noticing the alteration in its size and the hardening it has undergone.
    In water that is considerably less hot than boiling, the fibres of meat become soft, consequently any meat, even if old and tough, can be rendered useful for food by long continued stewing, at a heat much less than that of boiling water.
    11. When meat is thoroughly washed to obtain the fibrin, a soluble substance, similar to the white of egg, passes away in the water; this is termed albumen. There are from three to five pounds of albumen in every hundred of meat; it also forms a very large proportion of the brain and of the blood. In cold or warm water it is easily dissolved, but if heated to near the boiling point of water it becomes solid. If a piece of fresh meat is suddenly plunged for a few minutes into water quite boiling, the albumen at the outside is hardened and becoming solid prevents the escape of the juices which form the gravy. Exposed to a heat greater than that of boiling water albumen becomes very horny and indigestible, but when properly cooked it is one of the most valuable articles of diet.
    [-17-]. The tendinous or gristly parts of the flesh, such as cow's heel, the sinewy parts about the joints, also the skin and the nutritive parts of the bones, consist chiefly of a peculiar substance termed gelatin. This is a valuable albumenoid article of food when used with other substances. Gelatin and gelatinous articles of food may be dissolved by boiling, and the solution becomes a jelly when cold. Gelatin is rendered hard and horny by a dry heat, and therefore the sinewy and tendinous parts of meat are better adapted for stewing or boiling, than for roasting, broiling, or frying.
    13. If a quantity of lean meat be chopped up small, and placed in a closely-covered earthen pot, without water, and the pot be then put in a saucepan of water by the side of the fire so as to be very gradually heated, the juice of the flesh will escape. At first this will be of a red colour, being tinged with a little blood, but if heated to a greater degree it will become brown.
    The juice of the flesh contains many substances of the greatest value as food, and meat from which it is extracted is of very inferior value.
    All operations of cookery should be conducted so as to prevent as far as possible any loss of this valuable fluid. When meat is salted a large proportion of the juice of the flesh is extracted and forms the brine. This contains so much albumen as to become partly solid if heated. It is from the loss of this valuable juice that salted meats are so much less nutritious and wholesome than those that are used in a fresh state. What is termed extract of meat is merely the juice of the flesh from which the water has been evaporated so that it is nearly solid.
    [-18-] 14. Almost all flesh used for food contains a considerable proportion of fat, which when eaten maintains the warmth of the body. Hence we have a much greater appetite for fat in cold seasons and climates than in those that are warm. Fat is one of the oleaginous foods (7) which are the source of the force we exert; it is also essential to the proper action of the digestive organs. When taken in too great a quantity it accumulates in the body, which thus becomes fattened.
    15. The quantity and quality of these different substances vary very much in the different kinds of meat. The flesh of very young animals is not nearly so nutritious as that of those which are of mature age. Lamb and veal contain much less solid food than mutton or beef and are consequently not so economical, even if purchased at the same cost per pound. Mutton, if in good condition, is one of the most easily digested of the ordinary flesh meats. Pork is not so easily digested as beef or mutton, consequently is unfitted for sick persons, and from the unwholesome manner in which pigs are often kept, is more subject to be diseased than the flesh of sheep or oxen.
    16. Some of the internal parts of animals are exceedingly useful as food. The stomach of the ox when cleaned and partially boiled is sold as tripe, an easily digestible and nutritious food. In the tongue the fibres of the flesh are very small and delicate, and if stewed slowly, become very soft and digestible; hut tongues are frequently much hardened by salting for a long time. The flesh of the heart of the ox and of the sheep is very firm and solid, and though nutritious, is not very easily digested. Kidney and liver, [-19-] except in the case of those of young animals, are also hard and firm when cooked, and are not very digestible. The brain consists chiefly of albumen and water, and if properly prepared is a useful food. The blood of the pig contains a very large proportion of nutritive food, but is not a favourite food, and except in the form of "black puddings," is rarely used in this country.

    17. Roasting is a mode of cooking meat that is more common in this than in any other country. It is, however, not an economical or advantageous mode of cooking small joints, as they become dried up; and it is exceedingly wasteful in the case of sinewy or tendinous pieces of meat, as it renders a very large proportion of them quite uneatable. Roasting is an advantageous mode of cooking only in cases where the joints are large and where the cost of a large fire is not of importance. Consequently it is not the best suited to the circumstances of the working classes.
    When a piece of meat is hung before a fire, part of the fat melts and forms the dripping which should be carefully and cleanly preserved, as it constitutes a valuable article of food. During the process some of the water of the juice of the flesh is dried up; from these two causes the meat loses in weight. In some fat joints more than one quarter of the weight is lost, in others much less, as in the case of a leg of mutton which is covered by a skin, and has but little fat to melt away.
    [-21-] To roast well the meat should be hung up before a brisk bright fire, the first effect of which is to harden the albumen in the outer parts and thus prevent the escape of the nutritious juices. The heat should then be continued until it has penetrated the inside. When it is heated the natural red colour of the flesh is changed, and from the hardening of the albumen the meat becomes firm and can be cut in thin slices.
    Underdone meat is not, as is generally supposed, more nutritious than that which is properly cooked.
    The heat of the fire causes the production of peculiar flavours and odours which distinguish one kind of meat from another.
    18. In roasting it is important that the meat be put down before a bright, clear fire, sufficiently large to heat the whole of the joint at once. If possible, skewers and spits should not be thrust into the meat, as they make holes through which the gravy escapes. The time usually allowed for roasting is a quarter of an hour or twenty-minutes for every pound, but this depends on the thickness and also on the size of the joint.
    The usual plan of making gravy for roast meat is,' to sprinkle a little salt on the joint after it is placed in the dish, and then pour some boiling water over it; this washes off some of the brown and makes a coloured liquid in the dish.
    A much better plan is to collect the dripping in a flat pan, and when the meat is dished to leave as much as may be required for making the gravy; and then to dredge in some flour and place the pan over the fire or stove until the flour is browned. A little cold water is next added, which is to be well mixed with the brown [-22-] flour so as to avoid leaving any lumps. Boiling water, or still better, broth made by stewing any scraps of bones from the joint, is then poured on in sufficient quantity, the whole being constantly stirred; the whole is allowed to boil for a few minutes and poured over the joint. In this manner a large quantity of very good, rich, nutritious gravy is produced which is very economical, as it renders potatoes and other vegetables much more acceptable, especially to children, and in this mode saves the consumption of meat.
    If a joint is to be eaten cold it is better that it should not be cut whilst warm, as the contraction of the fibres forces out the gravy; but if not cut until cold the gravy is retained and the meat is much more tasty and tender.
    19. Baking is a more economical mode of cooking than roasting, especially in small families where economical stoves or ranges with side ovens are used. In baking there is less loss of weight than in roasting as the joint is less dried. Care should be taken that the floor of the oven is not too much heated or the fat may be burnt, which causes a bad flavour. A great advantage in baking is that it requires less attention than roasting, and that potatoes, or a batter or Yorkshire pudding, can be cooked under the meat. This latter may be made by taking four tablespoonfuls of flour, and rubbing them into a smooth batter with a pint of milk, which has previously had a well-beaten egg mixed with it. If eggs are abundant two or three may be employed with advantage, the quantity of flour being lessened. The milk and egg must be added gradually, the batter being rubbed until uniformly smooth after each addition. [-23-]
    20. Broiling is the rapid cooking of a small piece of meat, as a chop or a steak, by exposing it to the heat of a fire; in large kitchens the gridiron on which the meat is cooked is usually placed over a large, clear fire, but in smaller houses it is generally hung up before the fire. Broiling has very nearly the same effect on meat as roasting. The albumen of the outer portions is hardened, and forms a kind of skin retaining the juices.
    In order that this may be done most perfectly, the meat should be rapidly turned so as to prevent the juices escaping on the side furthest from the fire. A fork should not be thrust into the flesh, as it makes holes through which the juices escape.
    In large chop-houses, the chops are turned over very quickly with broiling-tongs.
    Broiling is a good mode of cooking thick fleshy chops and steaks, but is a wasteful method of preparing thin pieces such as are often purchased when cheap meat is required.
    Success in broiling depends on having a thick, fleshy piece of tender meat, a clear fire, a clean gridiron, and on the meat being turned repeatedly. Broiled meat should not be sprinkled with salt until after it is cooked, and it should never be cut into in order to ascertain whether it is done; as if again put down to the fire the juice escapes from the cut, and the meat becomes dry and much less nutritious.
    21. Frying is the cooking of meat in melted fat heated in a frying or stew-pan over a fire or stove.
    If the frying-pan is placed over an open fire, the fat is usually over-heated, and gives out a very disagreeable smell; meat when placed in overheated fat has [-24-] its fibrin hardened and contracted, so that it becomes very tough; therefore fried meat is usually regarded as inferior to such as is broiled.
    1f however, the fat is not over-heated, and there is sufficient to prevent burning, and to cover the piece to be cooked, meat may be fried of a very light brown colour without being hardened.
    22. Boiling may be performed in various modes. If the joint is put in cold water and placed on the fire, and the heat very slowly raised to the boiling- point, after which the saucepan is pulled back from the fire so as to be kept hot without boiling until the joint is thoroughly done; the meat will be tender in proportion to the length of time and slowness with which it has been cooked, but a considerable proportion of the gelatin and albumen will be dissolved in the water, and unless this be used for soup or broth will be wasted.
    This dissolved albumen coagulates or hardens as the water approaches the boiling-point, and forms the scum, which should be removed by skimming just before the water boils, or it is carried down by the boiling and discolours the meat.
    A different mode of boiling is sometimes adopted when the liquor is not required for soup. It is to place the joint in perfectly boiling water for a quarter of an hour; this hardens the outside and prevents the escape of the nutritious juices ; the water is then cooled, either by adding a quantity of cold water or by drawing the vessel back from the fire, and the process continued at a law heat until the whole is thoroughly cooked.
    If the water is made to boil during the whole time [-25-] the meat is being cooked, the fibrin is rendered hard, and the meat becomes tough and stringy.
    To have meat tender it is important not to expose it to the heat of boiling water for any length of time. In what is termed a Norwegian kitchener the water in which the meat is placed is made to boil. Then the vessel is placed in a box thickly hued with layers of woollen felt; this prevents the escape of the heat, and the largest joints will be perfectly and most tenderly cooked after having been taken away from the fire for three or four hours.
    In all cases of boiling it is desirable to avoid thrusting a large fork or skewers into the joint, as these, by passing into the interior where the albumen is not hardened, make holes through which the juice escapes, and the meat becomes dry and less nutritious. If necessary, it is better to tie the joint round with string than to employ skewers.
    Ham and the lean of bacon, which is usually hard and tough, may be cooked so as to be perfectly tender and without waste of fat, by not allowing the water to boil. At the large ham and beef shops in London, where the meat is always very tender, the hams are placed in large coppers of cold water, a small fire is lighted under the copper, and the water gradually raised to the boiling-point, when the fire is immediately raked out, the copper covered over, and the hams allowed to remain in the water until it is nearly cold. In this manner they are several hours in cooking, and are never heated to the boiling-point, consequently the flesh becomes exceedingly tender, and there is no loss of fat.
    23. Stewing is a much more advantageous and [-26-] economical mode of cooking than boiling: by its use the flesh of old animals, and tough, sinewy joints that would otherwise be wasted, can be used for food. Stewing consists in cooking meat in a small quantity of liquid, by a very moderate heat, which is continued for a very considerable time. By this long-continued action of a gentle heat the fibres are softened and the toughest joints become tender and eatable. In cooking meat by stewing it must be remembered that length of time is much more important than extra heat; and that the cooking of the food cannot be hastened by increasing the heat, which if raised to the boiling-point only hardens the fibres and renders the meat tough.
    In the houses of the working classes in England stewing is not so much employed as it should be. By its use small pieces of meat may be cooked with vegetables, and made into the most savoury and nourishing dishes, and the coarsest and cheapest joints may be made almost equal in flavour and quite as nutritious as the dearest.
    The stews best known in this country are stewed steak, haricot mutton, Irish stew, and jugged hare. The value of these is recognized, and it is only prejudice or ignorance which prevents the English housewife applying the same mode of cooking to other joints, and using the French plan of always having a stewing pipkin or pot-au-feu by the side of the fire.
    24. As examples of different modes of stewing, the following recipes are given:-
    Stewed Steak.:-Take a clean, well-tinned stew- pan, which is much better for the purpose than an [-27-] ordinary saucepan, put in a little butter or dripping, and melt it; then place in the steak, cut into conveniently sized pieces, and fry each of a very light brown, frying a sliced onion at the same time; when sufficiently fried, add the seasoning, such as pepper and salt. The salt must not be added at first, as it would draw out the gravy and prevent the meat browning. The meat should then be barely covered with cold water and allowed to stew slowly for four or five hours, the greatest care being taken that it does not boil.
    The vegetables, such as turnip, carrot, celery, &c., should be cut up and boiled in a separate saucepan of water until tender, and them added to the stewed meat. The object of cooking the vegetables separately is to prevent the necessity of boiling the meat, which would harden it. Half an hour before serving, add a little flour and water, mixed into a very thin paste, and let the stew just simmer so as to thicken the gravy.
    Haricot Mutton is made in precisely the same manner, using small cutlets from the neck of mutton instead of steak.
    Irish Stew is a popular dish; it is usually made by placing in a stew-pan alternate layers of pieces of mutton and sliced potatoes and onions, with pepper and salt, barely covering them with water, and allowing the whole to stew for some hours. If a large quantity of potatoes are required, it is desirable to partially boil some small ones and place them on the top of the stew half an hour or more before serving, as they then become perfectly cooked and acquire the flavour of the stew. If too many potatoes are added at first, so much water is required to cover them that the stew is spoiled.
    [-28-] Jugged Hare is a very good example of the utility of stewing. If a hare is too old and tough to be eaten when roasted, it is cut up and placed in an earthenware vessel with a little bacon, onions, cloves, lemon peel, sweet herbs, pepper and salt, and a little water; the earthen jar is then to be very closely covered over and placed in a large saucepan of cold water, taking care the water is not sufficiently high to run into the jar. The saucepan is allowed to boil for four hours, or the jar may be placed in a very slow oven. Before serving, the gravy is thickened by adding a little flour and water.
    Stewed Rabbits.-A very economical and useful mode of cooking rabbits is used in Spain. Alternate layers of pieces of rabbits and sliced onions are placed with a little seasoning and flour in a stew-pan without any water, the whole is closely covered down, and placed by the side of the fire for three or four hours.
    Vinegar is sometimes used in the preparation of stews, as directed in the following recipe, which, if strictly followed, produces a most excellent dish:-
    "Take shin or leg of beef, cut it into slices or pieces of two or three ounces each; dip it in good vinegar, and with or without onions, or any other flavouring or vegetable substances, put it in a stew- pan, and without water, let it stand on a stew-hearth, or by a slow fire for four or six hours, when it will be thoroughly done, will have yielded plenty of gravy, and be perfectly tender. Great care must be taken that the heat is sufficiently moderate. Leg or shin of beef makes the richest and most nutritious stew, and may be had at a low price; but any other meat [-29-] or fish may be so dressed. A pound and a half of leg of beef, without bone, so dressed, and plenty of potatoes, will dine four people luxuriously.
    25. The Stewing Pipkin or Pot-au-feu is the general mode of cooking amongst the working classes in France. Its use effects a great saving of fuel, trouble, and skill. Carême, one of the most celebrated French cooks, gives the following directions:-
    "The good housewife puts her meat into an earthen pot, and pours cold water on it, in the proportion of two quarts to three pounds of the beef. She sets it at the side of the fire.
    "The pot grows gradually hot, and as the water heats it dilates the muscular fibres of the flesh by dissolving the gelatinous matter which covers them, and allows the albumen to detach itself easily, and rise to the surface of the water in light foam or scum, while the savoury juice of the meat, dissolving little by little, adds flavour to the broth.
    "By this simple proceeding of slow cooking, the housewife obtains a savoury and nourishing broth, and tender boiled meat, and with a good flavour. But by placing the pot-au-feu on too hot a fire, it boils too soon; the albumen coagulates and the fibre hardens; the sad result is that you have only a hard piece of boiled meat, and a broth without flavour or goodness. A little fresh water poured into the pot at intervals helps the scum to rise more abundantly."
    Whatever vegetables are in season may be added to the stewing-pot, as celery, onions, carrots, turnips, and salt, pepper, and sweet herbs. The broth may be poured over toasted bread, or rice or Scotch barley may be added so as to make it more nutritious.
    [-30-] The great precaution to be taken in stewing is not to allow the heat to rise too high. This is quite prevented in Captain Warren's cooking-pots. These consist of one saucepan within another, like a carpenter's glue-pot, the outer being filled with water~ By this arrangement the inner cannot become overheated to the boiling point; consequently the meat is cooked slowly and without becoming hard. In Warren's cooking-pots, meat, fowls, ham, bacon, &c., can all be cooked perfectly without any water being placed in the inner vessel, so that the whole of- the gravy flowing from the meat is preserved in the richest form.
    26. Soups and Broths are not so generally used among the working classes in this country as is desirable. They furnish, when properly prepared, very economical and nutritive articles of food.
    Pea Soup is that which is most generally used in England. It may be prepared either with or without meat; the latter is hardly required, except for the flavour, as the peas are remarkably rich in albumenoid substances. The following directions may be followed. Soak a quart of split peas over night, place them in a stewpan with half a pound of lean bacon, or some bones from roast meat broken small, and three quarts of cold water, or the liquor in which some fresh meat has been boiled; place on a very slow fire and add celery, onions, and sweet herbs, and simmer for two or three hours until the peas and vegetables are sufficiently soft to pass through a colander, when pepper and salt should be added and the whole reheated, and eaten with toasted bread cut into small square pieces. If no meat can be obtained [-31-] the soup may be rendered much more savoury by frying the on4ons and celery in a little dripping before adding them to the soup; and if dripping is plentiful, the bread may be fried instead of toasted.
    Scotch Broth is very generally used among the middle and working. classes in Scotland. It is very economical, as both broth and meat are used. The following are the directions Put into a pot three quarts of cold water, along with a cupful of Scotch barley, and let it boil. Add two pounds of neck of mutton. Allow it to stew gently for an hour, skimming occasionally. Then add turnips cut in squares, and onions sliced, and carrots and turnips uncut. The half of a small cabbage chopped in moderately sized pieces may be put in instead of all these vegetables, and leeks may be used instead of onions. Stew the whole for an hour longer. The broth is now ready. Season with salt, and serve in a tureen. The meat is served in a separate dish, with the uncut pieces of turnip and carrot, and a little of the broth as gravy. Any meat may be employed in the same way, which is not unlike that followed in preparing the French Pot au feu (25).
    27. Salting Meat is in most cases a very wasteful process; salt when applied to fresh meat extracts a very large proportion of the nutritious juice of the flesh, and at the same time hardens the fibres and renders them much less easily digestible. The brine that runs from salted meat contains so much nutritious albumen that it becomes nearly solid on being heated, and as there is no means of extracting the salt, it is necessarily wasted.
    The salting of meat before cooking is an English [-32-] prejudice which is not followed in any other country, nor is there any good reason why beef and pork should be salted before boiling, and mutton and veal boiled without salting. The plan followed on the Continent of slowly stewing a joint of beef without first salting it, yields a much more nutritious, tender, and well flavoured food.
    In cases where it is necessary to preserve meat, as on shipboard, salting may be useful, but health cannot be preserved for any length of time on meat from which the most valuable part, the nutritious juice, has been extracted by salting.
    In the case of very fat meats, as bacon, salting is not objectionable, as in them the most valuable constituent is the fat, which is not injured by the process.
    In the case of ham a peculiar flavour is produced during the process of salting which is highly esteemed, but it should be remembered that the value of the flesh of ham as food is very much less than that of the meat from which it is produced.
    28. Preserved Meats.-The meats imported in tins from Australia and South America are exceedingly valuable articles of diet; and are at the present time much cheaper than fresh butcher's meat. The only drawback to their value is that they are rather overcooked in the process for preparing them, it is therefore more advantageous to use them cold than in any other manner.
    29. Extract of Meat.-The extracts of meat sold in small jars are merely the juice of the flesh evaporated till it becomes nearly dry. It is useful as means of making beef tea or soup quickly, but is by no means an economical article of food.
    [-33-] Beef-tea, which is so valuable in cases of illness, is usually made by boiling the meat in water; this is a very bad plan, as the fibres are hardened, and the soluble portions less readily extracted. It should be made by pouring a pint of cold water on half-a-pound of finely-cut or chopped lean beef and then placing it, in a covered earthenware vessel, by the side of the fire for an hour or two. By this means the whole of the soluble nutritious portions are extracted and the insoluble fibre alone remains. A small quantity of salt and two or three cloves greatly improve the flavour.

    30. Fish although of great importance as yielding a cheap supply of nutritious and easily digested animal food, is not equal in value to the same weight of meat, as it contains a much larger proportion of water and less solid material.
    Fish usually contain a very considerable proportion of oil, in some kinds, as herrings, sprats, pilchards, salmon, eels, mackerel, this is found in all parts of the body, whilst in others, which are usually termed white fish, the oil is contained in the liver, and the rest of the body is almost entirely free from it. Such is the case in cod, haddock, whiting, soles, plaice, flounders, &c.
    The fibre of the flesh of fish is very digestible, and the juice though more watery than that of meat is of considerable nutritive value. When boiled, a large proportion of this escapes into the water and is lost; hence though so frequently practised, boiling is not the most economical or advantageous mode of cooking fish.
    [-35-] 31. Salting, though often necessary to preserve fish when caught in large quantities, is not a desirable mode of preparing white fish. It extracts a very large proportion of the nourishment and hardens the fibrin; and if the salt has to be extracted by soaking in water before cooking, as in the case of salt cod, very little nourishment remains. The fat of the oily fish, as herrings, &c., is not removed by salting; hence they are very valuable as food when preserved in this manner.
    32. The most advantageous modes of cooking fish are those that retain the whole of the nutritious portions. A plaice or a sole placed on a buttered dish covered over with a few bread-crumbs and seasoning and baked retains the whole of the nutriment, and furnishes a much more savoury meal than if boiled.
    The following recipes give directions for the economical and advantageous cooking of fish.
    Baked Fish.-Almost any kind of fish, as mackerel, haddock, whiting, soles &c. may be cooked by being placed in a dish with bread crumbs, a little chopped parsley, and other seasoning, as pepper, salt, a few sliced onions, if desired, and baked in a side oven. The more oily fish, as herrings, pilchards, sprats, may be packed closed in a deep earthenware dish, seasoned with pepper and salt, covered with vinegar and cooked perfectly even by the side of the fire. Fish prepared in either of these modes, are very good to eat cold, and as they will keep good for some days furnish very useful and cheap articles of food. Broiling fish is an excellent mode of cooking them, there is no loss of nourishment and the flavour is much better than when they are boiled. A broiled mackerel, &c., is a much more substantial meal than one that has been [-36-] cooked by boiling, and no sauce is required to be prepared.
    Frying is a useful mode of preparing fish, especially soles, whitings, plaice, cod, and other white fish. The chief precautions are to dry them thoroughly, either to flour or dip them in a thin batter made of flour and water, and fry in a deep pan with sufficient fat or dripping to cover them if possible, and to take care that the heat is not so great as to burn the fish, which should be of a light brown colour.
    Fish soups are largely used in some countries. In the Channel Islands a very good and nutritious soup is made of conger-eel according to the following directions:-
    Cut up a moderate sized conger-eel in a stewpan with three or four quarts of water, and let it simmer two or three hours till it breaks to pieces. Rub it through a sieve, and pour back into the stewpan with a little butter. Throw in a small leek, the white heart of a cabbage cut up, some parsley chopped small, and a bunch of thyme. Mix two table-spoonfuls of flour in a pint of milk, and when the cabbage is done, throw it into the stewpan, stirring all the time, till it comes to a boil; then let it boil ten minutes to take off the rawness of the flour. Before dishing up, season with a little salt, as the salt is apt to curdle the milk if added before. Have ready thin slices of bread in your tureen, and pour the soup over.

    33. Eggs contain two distinct substances, the white and the yolk. The solid part of the white is almost entirely albumen which forms fifteen parts out of every 100, the remaining eighty-five parts being water. Albumen is a valuable flesh-forming food and gives its name, albumenoid, or albumen-like, to the class of foods to which it belongs. It possesses peculiar properties, it dissolves in cold or warm water, but in the white of egg it is in layers like those of an onion, and these require to be broken up by beating before the albumen can be dissolved.
    If the beating is long continued a glairy fluid is formed in which large quantities of air are contained in bubbles; when used in pastry in this state eggs add very much to the lightness or sponginess of the mass.
    Heated to a point many degrees below that of boiling water the albumen hardens, becoming solid and of an opaque white, hence its name from the Latin word, albus, white.
    When an egg is boiled very hard and allowed to [-38-] become cold, the solid albumen may be separated into the layers of which it consists.
    The yolk contains a considerable quantity of albumen, with nearly a third of its weight of oil, and a very large proportion of sulphur and other mineral matters. It is the sulphur which causes eggs to tarnish silver, and produces their exceedingly offensive smell when rotten.
    34. The value of eggs as food is very great. Like milk, they contain all the materials required for the growth of the body. The entire of the young chick, its bones, down or feathers, skin, internal organs, and flesh are formed out of the materials contained in the egg, which must therefore contain every substance required for the support of the body.
    35. The usefulness of eggs as food depends very greatly upon the mode of cooking. When boiled in the shell the outer portion of the white becomes much hardened, and is of so solid a character, being quite destitute of pores, that it is digested with extreme slowness, and hence is not fitted for children or persons of weak digestion. Eggs may be boiled so as to render them much less difficult of digestion by placing them in a saucepan of cold water, making it boil, and then allowing the eggs to remain a few minutes in the saucepan after it has been removed from the fire, the time they have to remain in the boiling water varies with that required to make the water boil.
    Poached eggs, if well prepared, are much less hardened. The usual plan is to break each egg separately into a tea-cup and pour it with the yolk unbroken into a frying-pan or shallow stewpan of boiling [-39-] water, removing it with a skimmer as soon as the white is set. Prepared in this mode the egg is much more quickly cooked and the albumen less hardened than in the process of boiling.
    In frying, eggs are exposed to a very high temperature, and the thin edges of the white become very horny and quite indigestible.
    A much better plan is to cook the eggs on a plate on which a little butter, ~pepper and salt have been placed; this is first heated by the side of the fire or on the stove, and when the butter is melted the eggs are broken on to the plate and cooked by a gentle heat.
    Omelettes, which consist of eggs beaten up with flavouring and other ingredients and fried very lightly, are most valuable articles of food that are not properly appreciated in this country. An omelette with herbs may be made by melting a little butter in a small frying pan, beating up three or four eggs with a dessert-spoonful of milk, a little chopped parsley, pepper and salt, pouring it into the frying-pan and stirring till it thickens, then allowing it to remain for a few moments until it is firm, the pan being sharply shaken so as to prevent the omelette sticking to the bottom.
    Sweet omelettes are made by the addition of sugar instead of herbs, pepper, &c. Cheese omelettes by the addition of grated cheese, &c.
    Custard, which consists of eggs beaten up mixed with milk sweetened and set in a slow oven, is one of the most easily digested and nutritive articles of food, especially adapted for chidren [-sic-] and invalids.
    The use of eggs in pastry and cakes depends partly on their nutritive value and partly on their rendering [-40-] the paste more tenacious and so retaining the gases and vapour that by expanding make the paste light in the process of cooking.
    The preparations sold under the name of egg-powders consist merely of chemical substances that give out a gas when moistened. They help to render the dough light, but have no nutritive value whatever.
    36. Preserving Eggs.- As eggs are produced in large numbers in spring and summer, it is desirable to preserve them for winter use. They may be kept good for many weeks by closing the pores of the shells, by rubbing them with a little melted lard as soon as they are laid, or they may be packed in a vessel and a mixture of freshly-slaked lime in water, mixed to the thickness of thin cream, poured over them. This method will keep them, if fresh when laid down, for many months, but it unfortunately renders the shells very brittle.
    37. From the great value of eggs many persons are tempted to keep fowls in a confined space; but this plan cannot be recommended, as after a few weeks the ground becomes tainted, the hens become diseased, and cease to lay. But a few hens can always be kept to great profit on the waste house scraps and a little corn, provided they have a free range and can obtain a supply of worms and insects.

    38. Milk, as it is obtained fresh from the cow, is a white fluid, having a slight smell and taste. It consists of several distinct substances, which partly separate from one another on its being allowed to remain at rest. These are Cream, Curd, and Whey, the last consisting of water, which contains dissolved in it the Sugar of Milk, and the saline and earthy minerals necessary to supply the saline materials of the blood, and those required for the growth of the bones.
    39. The Cream is formed of very small globules of butter, invisible to the naked eye, but readily seen with the aid of a microscope; each of these globules is surrounded by a very fine skin of curd. They are dispersed in the milk when it is first drawn from the cow, but as they are lighter than the whey, they slowly rise to the top when the milk is allowed to rest, and form the cream. This rising takes place more quickly in warm than in cold weather. A larger quantity reaches the top if the milk is placed in [-42-] very shallow pans than if it is in vessels several inches in depth. The quantity of cream varies considerably; some cows give milk much richer in cream than others. The quality of the food on which they are fed also affects the quantity of the cream. Cows feeding in rich pastures give richer milk than those that graze on poor land; and if they are fed upon oil-cake, &c., the amount is greatly increased. The quantity of cream is usually about 10 per cent., but is much lessened if the cows are driven a long distance daily, and also by exposure to cold weather; in the first case the cream is consumed in producing the force the animal exercises in walking, and in the second by generating the heat necessary to resist the cold (4).
    40. Clotted Cream.-The rising of the cream can be hastened by heat, which causes it to separate in a much more solid form, when it is called clotted cream.
    The milk, after standing ten or twelve hours in a flat metal milk-pan, is placed, without disturbing the cream that has risen, over a stove or clear fire, until a thick scum or cake rises to the surface; a small portion of this is gently removed with the finger from time to time, and when a few small air-bubbles are seen underneath, the whole is immediately removed from the fire, and allowed to stand twenty-four hours. The cream thus obtained is much more solid than usual; it can be gathered off the milk with the fingers, and butter is easily made from it by stirring for a few minutes with the hand. This cream, which is called scalded or clotted cream, will keep several days without turning sour. It, however, requires to be carefully made; [-43-] for if the milk is allowed to remain on the fire after the bubbles appear beneath the cake of cream the process fails.
    The plan of scalding the cream is very useful in small dairies, where only one or two cows are kept, as the cream keeps much longer without becoming sour, and may be kept until a sufficient quantity is collected to make it into butter.
    41. Skimmed Milk.-The milk remaining after the cream has been removed is termed skimmed milk. If used before it becomes sour it is of great value as food; where new milk cannot be obtained, its use is of very great importance; for puddings it is almost equal to fresh milk, as the place of the cream that has been removed can be supplied by adding half an ounce of suet or dripping to every pint of milk. When fresh milk cannot be obtained for children, the use of good skimmed milk is of the greatest benefit. It is sometimes the case that the skimmed milk has been so long kept, that, although not sour, it will curdle when heated. This may be prevented by adding a pinch of common carbonate of soda to it before boiling; and in the same manner unskimmed milk that is "on the turn" may be boiled for bread and milk or puddings, without curdling, by the use of a very small quantity of carbonate of soda.
    42. The Curd which is dissolved both in milk and in skimmed milk separates in a solid form as they become sour. The quantity of curd, like that of the cream, varies considerably in different samples of milk. The curd when separated from the milk by the use of rennet (a fluid obtained by soaking in water the digestive stomach of the calf), and pressed [-44-] out and dried, forms cheese, which varies very much in quality and in its value as food. Cheese made from fresh milk contains nearly the whole of the cream, and is more digestible and useful as food than that which is made from skimmed milk, which is very hard and digested with difficulty, although it contains a great amount of albumenoid substances. In all situations in which milk can be obtained, it is far preferable to use it as food in a fresh state than to employ the cheese obtained from it. The whey which remains after the. separation of the curd contains the sugar of milk and the mineral ingredients. Where neither fresh nor skimmed milk can be procured, whey is a useful article of food.
    43. Butter is obtained from cream by the operation of churning; during this the thin skin of curd surrounding each globule of butter is broken, and the butter unites into a solid mass. Sometimes the butter refuses to "come;" this usually arises from the temperature being either too high or· too low. Butter can be obtained most readily from either milk or cream at a temperature of 60º Fahrenheit, and cold or warm water should be added to the cream or milk, so as to obtain that degree of heat, When churned, the butter should be well washed, so as to remove every trace of curd, which, if left, soon putrefies and renders it rancid, and then salted.
    Butter may be made from scalded or clotted cream by stirring briskly with the hand for a few minutes.
    Butter is an expensive article of food, and its value is no greater than that of any other soft fat, such as dripping, lard, or the melted fat of good [-45-] bacon. Hence, where economy is an object, these may be advantageously substituted for it.
    44. The use of milk for food is not sufficiently valued in this country. Young children can hardly be reared in health without it. When first swallowed it is made into a soft curd by the acids of the stomach, and in this state is readily digested. In dairy countries skimmed milk should be largely used by those children whose parents are unable to obtain fresh milk, as it is, if not sour, the cheapest form in which animal food can be obtained.
    45. Milk is seldom adulterated with anything except water, which may be detected with sufficient accuracy by

means of two instruments termed milk-testers. The most useful of these consists of a long tube, containing 100 parts of milk; this is numbered from the top downwards. When filled with milk to the upper line, and allowed to stand twenty-four hours, the number of parts of cream that have risen to the surface may be seen, and the richness of the milk ascertained.
    From the height of the glass tube all the cream does not rise, so that the milk appears poorer than it really is.
    In some of the large Union houses the milk is paid for according to the quantity of cream it contains, 10 parts in 100 being regarded as a fair quantity, and a larger amount being paid for at a greater rate, and a less amount at a smaller.
    As milk is heavier than water in the proportion of 1030 to 1000, its quality is sometimes tested by an instrument to ascertain its weight; the stem of this lactometer floats higher in the heavier pure milk than it does if it is diluted with water. But this method of testing is not so good as that first described, as the milk is rendered heavier and apparently better by the removal of the cream.
    46. Preserved Milk is now largely used in cities, on shipboard, and in situations where fresh milk is not to be readily obtained. It is made by evaporating nearly the whole of the water of the milk, and adding sugar. If well prepared it is perfectly wholesome, and is very valuable as an article of diet where fresh milk cannot be obtained.

    47. Flour.-The flour of wheat is that usually employed for making bread in this country. Wheaten flour, like all valuable foods, consists of several distinct substances. These may be separated from each other very readily.
    If a little dough, made of moistened flour, is tied up in a piece of muslin, and kneaded for some time between the fingers in a large basin of water, the latter becomes milky from the starch of the flour being washed out into it. If this water is allowed to stand at rest, the starch settles at the bottom in the form of a fine white powder. The water contains dissolved in it a small quantity of sugar, gum, and the other soluble substances of the flour.
    When the whole of the starch has been washed through the muslin, a greyish tough substance, like very soft indiarubber remains. This is gluten, which forms about io per cent. of the flour, the starch being nearly 70 per cent., and the sugar and gum 7 per cent., the remaining parts being made up of water, mineral substances, and indigestible fibre.
    [-48-] 48. Starch is one of the most important of all vegetable foods. It does not contain any albumenoid substances and cannot therefore supply the materials of which our bodies are formed; taken by itself, it would not long support life, nor enable a young animal to grow; but it is the source of the warmth of our bodies and of the strength we exert, in this respect resembling fat and the other oleaginous foods with which it is classed.
    As obtained in a pure state, it consists of very minute grains, each covered with an Outer skin which is perfectly insoluble in and unchanged by water; hence pure starch is unaffected by moisture, and may be washed without change.
    In boiling water these grains crack, and the interior of each dissolves in the water, forming a thick, gummy solution. A similar change takes place if starch is baked, when it becomes soluble and forms what is called British Gum, which is used in stiffening muslins and cementing postage stamps, &c. Several nearly pure starches are largely used as food. Tapioca is a very pure starch, which is slightly heated during its preparation, and rendered partially soluble in cold water.
    Sago is a starch obtained from the interior of the stem of a palm tree. It also is heated in its preparation.
    Arrowroot is a very pure starch, obtained in the form of a white powder. Potatoe-starch may be easily prepared by grating well washed large potatoes into water and allowing time for the starch to settle at the bottom, when the water with the vegetable fibre may be poured away, fresh water being added, and the starch washed repeatedly until the water can be poured off perfectly clear, when the starch may be dried on cloths and is ready for use.
    Prepared in this manner, potato-starch may be used in the place of arrowroot, for which it is often sold, as food it is not at all inferior in value.
    The preparations sold under the names of Corn-flour and Maizena are pure starches obtained from maize or Indian corn by the removal of all the albumenoid and other substances. Their value as food is precisely the same as that of arrowroot or other starchy articles, and, like them, when combined with milk and eggs, they form very advantageous articles of diet.
    All starches are useless for food, if taken alone. To render them valuable they require the addition of albumenoid and fatty substances. These may be furnished by the addition of milk. By placing about two ounces of tapioca, rice, or sago in the bottom of a baking-dish, with a little sugar and butter, or dripping, pouring over a quart of cold milk and baking for about an hour in a slow oven, a very economical and valuable pudding results.
    49. Starch, in its uncooked insoluble state, is not capable of digestion by the human stomach; hence all uncooked starchy articles should be avoided. Seeds and fruits which consist chiefly of starch, especially if it is combined with oil, as is the case in almonds, hazel and other nuts, are remarkably difficult of digestion.
    The perfect digestion of articles of food that contain starch depends greatly on the action of the saliva of the mouth with which they are mixed during [-50-] mastication, consequently, it is of great importance to cause children to eat all starchy articles, as potatoes, bread, rice, &c. slowly, and to masticate them thoroughly. It is of much greater consequence to chew potatoes and bread well than meat; but all substances are more easily digested if eaten slowly.
    50. Sugar in its value as food closely resembles starch, but being soluble and more readily digested, is especially fitted for children, by whom it is greatly relished. It is unfortunately not so economical as starch, and consequently, except with very young children, is only to be regarded as a luxury. Sugar was formerly obtained almost entirely from the sugar-cane; but at the present time very large quantities are made on the continent of Europe from beet- root. This sugar is now largely used in this country; but its power of sweetening is not as great as that of cane-sugar. Treacle, which is an impure syrup obtained in producing white or refined sugar from the moist, or raw sugar, is largely used by the poor; but it is not so economic a food as sugar itself, though convenient and useful in sweetening bread and for making puddings, &c.
    Sugar has a very great preservative power, consequently is largely used in making preserves, and it or treacle is most useful to assist in preparing hams, bacon, &c.
    51. Bread in this country is made of wheaten flour. Wheat when ground produces what is called whole meal. This may be separated by sifting into several distinct substances. The outer skin, which is in large scales, is called Bran. This, contrary to a very prevalent opinion, has no nutritive value whatever. It is not capable of being digested, but irritates the digestive organs, sometimes to a very injurious extent.
    The inner skins are called pollard, sharps, and middlings. Tie pollard, or coarsest, should be removed from the flour; but the finer inner skins, which constitute the middlings, contain a large proportion of albumenoid and oily substances, and it is economical to allow them to remain. The very finest and most expensive flour from which all the outer portions have been removed is termed pastry whites. That which is not so finely sifted is termed households, or seconds, though the latter is usually made from wheat of slightly inferior quality, and is consequently cheaper.
    In consequence of the tenacious character of the gluten of the wheat, flour when mixed with water forms a tough dough. If yeast is added with the water a slight fermentation is caused, and gas is produced which cannot escape owing to the tough nature of the dough. This gas fills the dough with air- bubbles, which cause it to swell or rise, and form when baked a light spongy bread.
    52. Bread-making.-In order to make the bread as light and spongy as possible, bakers mix a small quantity of the flour they are about to use with water and the yeast and set it to rise some time before mixing up the mass of dough; this is called by them "setting the sponge." The advantage of this plan over that usually employed in making "home-made bread is that a smaller quantity of yeast is required; and, as the whole "sponge acts as a ferment, the bread is much better and softer than if made in the ordinary manner. To increase the fermenting qualities of the sponge, bakers always add a small quantity of mashed boiled potato, which greatly quickens the rising of the dough.
    To make half a peck of flour into bread on this system, take three-quarters of a pound of well-boiled mealy potatoes and mash them through a cullender or coarse sieve into a large pan, mix with them a pint of flour; take an ounce and a half of German dried yeast, mix it in a separate basin with a pint and a half of lukewarm water,¹(The right temperature is 88' Fahrenheit thermometer.) and strain into the flour and potatoes; beating the whole well into a batter. This should then be covered with a blanket and set to rise by the side of the fire, or in a warm place. If kept quite warm it will be found to have risen greatly in two hours, constituting the sponge. This, which is very tenacious or gluey, should then be perfectly beaten or broken down with the hand, and mixed with one pint and a half of water nearly blood-warm ( 92° Fah.) and poured into half a peck of flour, which has previously had one ounce and a quarter of salt mixed with it. The whole should then be kneaded into dough, and allowed to rise in a warm place. In warm weather it will rise sufficiently in two hours; but in cold weather it will take a longer time. After the dough has risen, it should be turned out on a floured table or paste-board, divided into pieces of the size required for loaves, and lightly kneaded up into shape, with sufficient flour to prevent its adhering to the table.² (Directions for making bread without setting the sponge will be found in the Appendix.)
    If required to be made into lighter bread, a portion [-53-] of the dough, when ready for the oven, should be very well kneaded, with sufficient flour to make it rather solid, divided into small loaves or rolls, placed on a slightly greased tin, and set in a very warm place to rise again. The loaves are then washed over with a little milk and baked immediately for about twenty minutes. They should be covered over with cloth after removal from the oven, to prevent the outside becoming hard.
    Bakers' bread sometimes contains a small proportion of alum; this is added to inferior flour, made from wheat harvested in wet seasons, in order to prevent it making sticky and uneatable bread.
    Bread contains nearly half its weight of water; good freshly ground flour absorbing or taking up a larger quantity than such as has been long exposed to the air.
    Newly baked bread is much less digestible than that which has been baked the previous day. Stale bread may be rendered soft and palatable by covering it closely with a tin and placing it for half an hour in an oven very moderately heated.
    Pulled Bread, which is very useful with cheese or jn place of biscuit, is made by pulling the crumb of a loaf in pieces with two forks and baking them in a slack oven until of a very pale brown colour.
    Pastry differs from bread in being made with a proportion of fat, as suet, dripping, lard or butter. It is not as easily digested as bread, though very nutritious, and is therefore not suited for invalids. Directions for making the most useful kinds will be found in the Appendix.
    53. Baking Powder is usually employed for [-54-] raising unfermented bread, and is also of great use in making pastry, cakes, &c. It consists of substances that effervesce or give out a gas when moistened. The best baking powder may be very cheaply made by mixing two ounces of bicarbonate of soda, one ounce and a quarter of tartaric acid, and a quarter of a pound of corn flour, or ground rice. These ingredients should be quite dry, and perfectly mixed by passing them twice through a sieve. The powder should be kept in a canister or bottle closely corked, so as to prevent its becoming moist. The preparations sold as egg powder are of a similar character and use, but they do not add to the nutritious value of the food in the same manner as eggs. Patent and self-raising flour is merely flour to which soda and tartaric acid has been added.
    54. Oatmeal.-Oatmeal though highly nutritive does not contain a tough and adhesive gluten like that of wheat, and cannot therefore be made into fermented bread. It is largely used in the north of England and in Scotland in the form of oatcakes and porridge. Oatcakes are made by moistening the meal, so as to make it adhesive, and rolling it into thin cakes, which are baked on a hot plate. The best method of making porridge is to strew oatmeal with one hand into a vessel of boiling water (to which salt has been previously added), so gradually that it does not become lumpy, stirring the mixture all the time with the other hand. After about two large handfuls of coarse oatmeal have been stirred in to a quart of boiling water, the whole should be allowed to stand by the side of the fire, so as to simmer gently and thicken for twenty or thirty minutes. Porridge is usually eaten [-55-] with milk. It is excellent for children, being very nutritious, wholesome, and economical.
    Oatmeal should only be purchased at places where there is a quick sale for it, as it absorbs moisture from the air, and very quickly becomes rancid and unpleasant.
    Barley, when its husk is taken off, is termed Scotch or pearl barley, which is very useful in soups and broth, it requires from two to four hours' cooking.
    Rice from its cheapness is very largely used in this country. It contains a less amount of albumenoid substances than other grains, and scarcely any oily material, being chiefly starch, hence it should always be used with milk, eggs, and fatty substances. (47.) When rice is the same price as household flour the latter is by far the more economical food.
    Maize is one of the cheapest of the corn plants, but as it does not yield a tenacious dough, cannot be made into light fermented bread. In America, where it is largely used, it is employed as oatmeal is in Scotland in making cakes and a kind of porridge.

    55. Peas, Beans, and Haricots are valuable articles of food. They differ greatly from grain in containing a less amount of starch and fat, and a much larger quantity of albumenoid matter, which so closely resembles the caseine of curd of milk that cheese can be made of it. From their very dry and hard nature they require good cooking to render them easily digestible, and even when well cooked they do not agree with all persons.
    Peas.-These are often used in the green state. Dried peas are chiefly used in making soup, and in this form they furnish a very economical dish for strong healthy persons from the quantity of albumenoid substance they contain, the addition of animal food is scarcely required; the liquor, however, in which meat has been boiled or stewed may be used with advantage. Pea-soup may also be made exceedingly savoury without meat, by previously frying the vegetables, the celery, carrots, onions, or leeks in dripping, with a little flour, until of a brown colour, and then adding them to the soup. The quality of peas varies very much; some are good boilers, others even after long continued boiling, do not soften so as [-57-] to mix with the water, and are, therefore, unfit for soup; good boilers readily dissolve in two or three hours. Dried peas should not be used in the whole state, as the shells or skins are exceedingly indigestible.
    Haricots are the seeds of white kidney and runner beans. They are greatly used on the continent as a vegetable and in soups. When required as a vegetable they should be placed in water the previous night so as to soak thoroughly, they then require less boiling and are softer; when cooked they are eaten with meat, gravy, melted dripping or butter.
    The seeds of any of the varieties of French bean or scarlet runner may be employed in a similar manner, but from the colour of the skins they are less sightly on the table.
    Lentils are largely used on the continent in the same manner as dried peas are in England.
    Ground lentil flour is sold as "Revalenta" for the use of invalids, but it is only fitted for persons of strong digestion.
    56. Fresh Vegetables.-The use of fresh green vegetables is necessary to health. Persons deprived of them for any great length of time, as sailors sometimes are at sea, become subject to a very serious and fatal disease termed scurvy. The number of fresh vegetables used as food is very great, but the most valuable are potatoes, cabbages, turnips, carrots, parsnips, and onions. Peas and beans are also largely used in a green state.
    57. Potatoes.-The potato contains about threequarters of its weight of water. The solid matter is principally starch ; the saline substances it contains, however, render it valuable as. a fresh vegetable; the [-58-] addition of a few pounds of potatoes weekly to the diet of sailors, &c., is most effectual in preventing scurvy; the potato also contains a peculiar substance, having an extremely nauseous and unpleasant taste; this is in great part driven off by the heat employed in cooking; some, however, remains in the water in which potatoes are boiled, giving it a disagreeable taste and smell; consequently in making an Irish stew, or soup in which potatoes are used, it is desirable to boil them by themselves in the first place and throw away the water in which they are boiled.
    Potatoes should be cooked with their skins on, except when baked under meat; for if peeled before boiling, there is great waste, as well as considerable loss of time; they can also be cooked to a much greater degree of perfection when boiled unpeeled. Many kinds of potatoes are much better steamed than boiled, and there is less risk of their being badly cooked. It should be borne in mind, however, that, as the condensed steam runs back into the saucepan underneath, the water becomes contaminated, and imparts an unpleasant taste to any food boiled in it.
    58. Cabbages.-All the plants of the cabbage tribe, such as savoys, greens, kail, &c., are very valuable articles of food. Like most green vegetables they contain only one tenth of their weight of solid substance, the other nine-tenths being water. Cabbages when well boiled are very wholesome food. They consist chiefly of albumenoid substances, with no fat or oil and very little starch. Consequently they should be eaten with fat substances, as dripping or bacon, to supply the deficiency.
    All green vegetables should be cooked in soft [-59-] water; where this cannot be had a very small quantity of soda may be used; and in order to soften the water as much as possible, it should be made to boil rapidly before the greens are put in; it should also boil quickly during the whole time the green vegetables are cooking, or they will become brown.
    Turnips also contain about ninety per cent, of water; the solid part is very nutritious, easily digested, and wholesome. Turnips are used as fresh vegetables, and flavour soups, broths, &c.
    · Boiled turnips pressed so as to get rid of the water, and mashed up with a little butter or dripping, pepper and salt, supply a very valuable article of food.
    Carrots and Parsnips are more nutritive than turnips; they can be kept many months if the t~ops are cut out and they are placed in damp sand.
    Onions.-Onions and leeks owe their flavour to a volatile pungent oil; if eaten uncooked they are not easily digested, but when boiled or roasted, they are nutritious and wholesome-they contain a large amount of albumenoid matter. They are also largely used for flavouring stews and soups.
    59. Fresh Fruits, such as apples, gooseberries, oranges, pears, &c., are very important foods; the health of children can hardly be preserved without their use, and they suffer greatly if deprived of them.
    Nuts and dried fruits, such as figs, raisins, &c,, do not possess the beneficial action of fresh fruits, and nuts are very difficult of digestion.

    6o. THE most important condiments are salt, pepper, and mustard-of these salt alone is a necessary of life. The others are useful if used in small quantity to render food more palatable, but employed in large quantity they are injurious, and not required by the young, whose powers of digestion are good.
    61. Salt is absolutely essential to health, and even to life. It is one of the most abundant of all minerals; in many places it is found in the earth in great quantities. Sea water contains three parts in every hundred; it is found in small amount in all soils, in spring and river water, and in all those vegetables which are used for the food of man and animals.
    Salt when taken in the food supplies two substances, an acid which helps to form the sour fluid of the stomach that digests our food, and soda, which is the bile, a fluid which must be added to the dissolved or softened food before the nourishment can be extracted from it. If persons are compelled to live without salt, or on such food as does not contain a sufficient quantity, they become ill. The quantity of salt each [-61-] person requires is between a quarter to half an ounce daily. A large part of this is contained in the various articles of food and drink.
    Salt possesses the power of preserving meat and other substances. It acts by removing a large proportion of the liquid parts. The injurious effect of salted meat, when used for a lengthened period, has already been described (27).
    Salt is largely employed in some countries in preserving green vegetables for winter use. Thus French beans may be kept for many months by cutting them in slices, packing them in a jar with layers of salt, and pressing them down so that no part comes above the brine, which flows out. If tied over and placed in a cool situation they will keep a long time, and are ready for use as soon as the salt brine is washed away. In many countries cabbages and cucumbers and other vegetables are preserved in the same manner.
    Salt should always be taken with our meals, for a sufficient quantity does not exist in our food to supply the wants of the body.
    62. Vinegar.-Vinegar is an acid liquid, obtained in this country by allowing a kind of weak beer to become sour.
    It has the power of preventing substances putrefying, and is used for this purpose in making pickles. If taken with our food in small quantity it helps us to digest many substances that are difficult of digestion ; in large quantity it is very injurious. It is employed in cookery to assist in softening the fibres of tough meat,^{1 (}See directions for making Brazilian Stew in Appendix, Fifth Lesson.) and to pickle fish, vegetables, &c.[-62-] Pickled vegetables, as onions, cabbage, &c., are very difficult of digestion, and if taken in large quantity are decidedly injurious.
    63. Mustard is one of the most common condiments. If used in small quantity it promotes the appetite and increases the digestive power, but taken too freely it irritates the stomach and is very injurious. As a medicine mustard is of very great use, spread on calico and applied to the skin it relieves internal inflammation, by drawing the blood to the surface, in this manner it often relieves the most violent pain, and may be safely used in the absence of medical aid.
    64. Pepper is the spice most frequently employed in this country; like other spices it is useful in seasoning, but great care should be taken not to use it in large quantity, as it injures the stomach and renders the digestion of plain food difficult. Children should not be accustomed to highly spiced and seasoned dishes.

    65. Tea is more used in this country than any other unintoxicating beverage. Taken in moderate q'rtantity it is not injurious, but in large quantity it is hurtful, especially to persons who are not well fed. Tea is best made in an earthenware teapot, which should be kept dry, for if allowed to remain damp after use it acquires a musty flavour. The water should be boiling, and, if possible, soft; when hard water is used, it may be softened by being kept boiling for half-an-hour, when the lime which causes the hardness is partly thrown down, forming what is called fur or rock on the kettle; or a very small quantity of carbonate of soda may also be useci, or the tea may be allowed to remain soaking for half- an-hour by the fire-side, or be covered over with a woollen cover to prevent the escape of heat. As a general rule, the harder the water the longer the tea should be allowed to remain before use, care being taken to keep its temperature as near as practicable to that of the boiling point.
    66. Coffee is more stimulating than tea. If taken immediately after a meal, it appears to assist the [-64-] digestion. Like tea, if drunk strong, it produces wakefulness, which sometimes lasts for many hours. Coffee contains a bitter principle, but its flavour mainly depends upon a volatile substance which is driven off by boiling; to preserve its taste, it should therefore be made without boiling. The French coffee-pots, made of two cylindrical vessels, the upper having a metal strainer on which the ground coffee is placed, and through which the clear infusion runs into the lower one, are the best. The flavour of coffee is also very greatly improved by the employment of hot boiled milk.
    Chicory is the root of a plant. When roasted it is used with ground coffee to give colour and flavour; it is most advantageous to purchase it separately and mix it in the proportion of one part to three or four of coffee.
    67. Cocoa.-Cocoa and chocolate are prepared from the crusted seeds of an American plant. The kernels Contain nearly half their weight of fat. Cocoa is much more nutritious than tea or coffee, but not so stimulating. Chocolate is made of the pure kernels ground in a mill with sugar. Cocoa should contain the ground kernels only, but the husks are ground up with the cheaper kinds, which also contain potato-starch, and earthy substances, as red ochre, &c. Soluble cocoa contains a large proportion of starch, which thickens when boiling water is poured upon it. Genuine ground cocoa unmixed with other substances cannot be sold under one shilling to fourteenpence per pound.
    Cocoa is a very wholesome and nutritious beverage, and does iot produce those effects which render tea [-65-] and coffee objectionable to some people; and is far better for working men and for children.
    68. Beer and other intoxicating drinks are taken as luxuries. There is no doubt that they are not necessaries of life. To children all stimulants are particularly injurious, and they are never taken willingly, unless the child has been trained to use them. If children are brought up without them their strength and health are much better than those of children who take them, and they can do more work and endure more fatigue.
    There is more support and strength to be obtained from a pint of milk than a gallon of beer. To old persons who have been accustomed to the use of spirits and beer for many years they often become necessary, but it is exceedingly wrong to teach children to use them.

    69. Good health and the power of working so as to gain a comfortable living are impossible when persons dwell in unhealthy and overcrowded homes. Many circumstances render a house or dwelling unhealthy. The neighbourhood of an overcrowded churchyard, or a place where any unwholesome trade is carried on, is always injurious to health. If a house is in a narrow dark street, and the rooms face the north so as not to be warmed by the sunshine, or if they are closely shaded by trees, they always remain damp and cold, and the health of the persons inhabiting them suffers.
    Houses in low situations, where the ground is always damp, are never healthy, and fevers, rheumatism, colds, and other diseases, are much more frequent than in drier situations.
    [-67-] 70. In London and other large towns where the houses are drained into the sewers, no house should ever be lived in which is built over or near a cesspool, nor in which the drains allow an unpleasant smell to escape, as fever is certain to attack the inhabitants sooner or later. If cesspools are necessary, as is the case where there are no sewers, they should be placed at as great a distance as possible from the house.
    Earth closets are much more healthy than cesspools, as, if well managed, they do not give out any offensive smell; the use of any patent apparatus is not necessary; any outdoor closet may be made into an earth closet by placing a stout well-pitched drawer or box beneath the seat, arranged so as to pull out behind when required to be emptied, and a box of dried earth, with a scoop in the inside, is all else that is necessary. Or the seat may be made to lift up, and a large galvanized iron pail placed below, which can be removed and emptied when necessary; very little earth is required if no slops are thrown into the pail. Slops should not be thrown into an earth closet.
    71. The homes of working men in London and other large towns are generally greatly overcrowded, and without proper sleeping-rooms. When a family is obliged to dwell in one or two rooms, it is impossible that they can live healthily or decently. Bedrooms should be of good size, and each one should have a fire-place and chimney, which should never be closed by a board, as the current of air passing up the chimney helps to ventilate the room. It is not possible to state any exact size for bedrooms as the air in a small room properly ventilated may be purer than a large [-68-] one that is closed up. A room 12 feet square by 10 feet in height, would contain 1,440 cubic feet of air. In barracks this would only be regarded as space for two men, and in the best hospitals for one patient.
    In the country every cottage for a working man with a grown up family should have three bedrooms- one for the husband and wife, one for the elder boys, and a third for the girls. One of these bedrooms at least should have a fire-place, to be used in case of illness; and for the sake of ventilation, it is better that each one should be so provided.
    Every cottage should have a living-room ·not less than 12 feet square, and a small scullery or wash- house. A small pantry for food is necessary; this should have a window able to be opened outside of the cottage into the air. A place for tools, and another for fuel, are desirable. Every house should have a back as well as a front door, so that by opening both in summer thorough ventilation may be effected. If the front door opens into the sitting-room, there is in cold weather a great loss of heat each time the door is opened, and the sudden change of temperature often gives rise to colds and coughs, the front door should always be made to open into a porch or lobby.
    72. The following designs for a pair of cottages for agricultural labourers, show the smallest accomodation that is necessary for health. ¹(They are from the publications of " The Society for Improving the Condition of the Lahouring Classes. Exeter Hall, W.C.)
    73. Furniture.-Good well-made articles of furni-[-69-]ture are much more lasting than those of inferior quality, and are really the cheapest. Therefore it is much better to purchase furniture of a durable kind, although the first cost is greater.
    Articles purchased at cheap shops are always made of bad materials and are very much the dearest.

It is desirable in a working man's house not to use furniture which requires much time and trouble in cleaning; glass and earthenware are more readily cleaned than any other substances, and, for many purposes, are preferable to metal.
Iron bedsteads are better than wooden ones, as they do not harbour insects, are easily cleaned, and very [-70-] durable. The laths may be prevented from becoming rusty by laying a piece of coarse canvas or old

carpet over them; waterproof materials should not be used under the mattress as they prevent the damp [-71-] escaping, when the bedding decays quickly and the bed remains cold and damp. On getting up in the morning the bed-clothes should be thrown across the foot of the bed or on the backs of some chairs, and aired for two or three hours before the bed is made; making the bed immediately on rising is a very bad plan, as the sheets are charged with the moisture of the perspiration which has passed out of the skin during the night.
Mattresses are cheaper and more healthy to use than soft feather beds; and curtains which keep the foul air that has been breathed round the sleepers should not be used.
74. It is very undesirable to buy furniture or clothing of the hawkers known as Tallymen, who call at working men's houses, and sell showy and inferior goods, to be paid for by small payments of sixpence or a shilling per week. The articles are generally purchased by the wife, often without the knowledge of the husband, who becomes liable for the debt. Should the payments not be kept up, the husband is summoned to the County Court, and ordered to pay so much a week or month; after a judgment has been obtained, if only one of these instalments be left unpaid, the whole balance becomes instantly due, and everything the debtor has can be seized by the brokers and sold by auction immediately.

    75. THE goodness of the water used by us is of very great importance. Many more diseases are caused by bad water than even by bad food. Water forms three-quarters of our weight, and before any part of our food can be taken into our bodies it must be dissolved in the watery fluids of the stomach. All fresh vegetables contain a very large proportion of water. Thus potatoes consist of three-quarters, and turnips and cabbage of upwards of nine-tenths, of their weight of this liquid. Even the driest vegetable substances contain a large proportion. Dry wheaten flour has fifteen pounds of water in every hundred; this is driven off by the heat when it is baked in making infant's food¹ (See Appendix, First Lesson.) and bread contains one third of its weight of water.
    76. Water has so great a power of dissolving other substances, that it is not found anywhere in a perfectly pure state, but has always in it mineral substances, sometimes decaying vegetable and even animal materials derived from the soil or earth through which it flows, and gases and odours absorbed from the air.
   [-73-] 77. In large towns water is usually supplied by the water companies through pipes, having been obtained from rivers. The water is generally supplied only for a short time each day, and the quantity received has to be stored up in cisterns or water-butts. These should be very frequently cleaned out, as the impurities of the water settle at the bottom and are stirred up each time the fresh water comes in. Water-butts and cisterns should never be placed near any decaying matters, such as manure heaps, or in close underground cellars, or near cesspools or drains, as the water very quickly absorbs the gases and bad smells arising from such substances, and becomes unwholesome. Water standing for a night in a close or crowded room absorbs the impure air and becomes unpleasant to the taste and injurious to health. When the waste or overflow pipe from a cistern runs into a drain the foul air rises up the pipe and renders the water unwholesome, and the same evil arises if the cistern supplies a water-closet.
    78. River water varies very much in quality, that from some rivers contains a great amount of decaying matter from the sewers and drains that run into them; such water should not be used if it is possible to avoid it, but if no other can be obtained, it should be filtered and boiled before being drunk, or used in preparing food.
    All river water contains a small proportion of chalk, or carbonate of lime, dissolved in it. If the quantity is large the water is said to be hard-the greater the proportion of chalk the harder the water. The water of the river Thames, with which the greater part of London is supplied, contains fourteen grains of chalk [-74-] in each gallon. Very little chalk (only two grains in every gallon) can be dissolved by pure water. The large quantity found in river and spring water is dissolved by means of a gas, called carbonic acid gas, which is always present. When the water is heated this gas is driven off in small bubbles, which may be seen just before the water reaches the boiling point; the chalk is then thrown down in a solid form, rendering the water slightly cloudy or turbid, and afterwards it settles down on the sides and bottoms of boilers or kettles forming the rock or fur which is always found in old boilers.
    When green vegetables are boiled in hard water, the chalk causes them to be of a dull colour; and when clothes are boiled in hard water, as is sometimes done in washing, the rock or fur settles on them, causing them to be of a bad colour, the dirt being fixed in the clothes.
    When hard water is used for cooking or washing it is best to boil it for a few minutes before using it, as then the fur is thrown down on the sides of the boiler, and not on the food or clothes. Hard water is not good for making tea, as the strength of the tea-leaves is very slowly extracted.
    The bad effects of hard water in cooking may be partly remedied by using a small quantity of carbonate of soda, or even common washing soda, this softens the water, but if much be added it gives a soapy, unpleasant taste; as much as would cover a sixpennypiece may be added to a large saucepan of greens, and about a quarter as much to a large teapot of tea.
    79. Spring or well water differs very much in purity, that which is collected in shallow wells should [-75-] never be used in places that are thickly populated or highly manured, for the water is rendered impure by the decaying animal and vegetable substances in the soil, and becomes very unwholesome.
    When shallow wells are situated near cesspools or drains, the water becomes quite poisonous, and gives rise to cholera, fevers, and other fatal diseases. The water of wells situated in large cities, or near graveyards, is always to be avoided.
    80. The water from deep wells is generally free from any decaying vegetable matter or drainage, and is wholesome as a beverage, but it most frequently is excessively hard from containing a large amount of chalk dissolved in it.
    81. Rain water is very pure if collected in country districts where there is but little smoke, but in towns it is always blackened by soot. It is very soft, being perfectly free from mineral substances, and if collected in proper tanks free from leaves of trees and other decaying substances is very well fitted for cooking, drinking and washing.

    82. The Air we breathe is necessary to purify the blood and to support life. Air, though invisible, is a material substance, a quantity of it in a bladder or airtight bag prevents the sides being pressed together; it also possesses weight; a box, each side of which is one foot square (or one cubic foot), contains one ounce and a quarter of air. The air in a room twelve feet square and eight feet in height weighs ninety pounds.
    83. Air is not a simple substance, but a mixture of several gases. The most important of these is oxygen, which forms one-fifth part of its bulk. It is the oxygen which purifies the blood when we breathe, and it also enables combustible substances to burn when set on fire. The remaining four-fifths of the air consist chiefly of nitrogen, which serves to dilute the oxygen and render it milder, otherwise both our breathing and the burning of fires would go on too rapidly.
    84. The breathing of men and animals and the burning of fuel take away part of the oxygen of the air, and its place is supplied by a gas called carbonic [-77-] acid. This is very injurious if breathed. Air containing only one-thousandth part (1/1000) of carbonic acid destroys health if breathed for any length of time. In crowded places, or in bed or sitting-rooms when the doors and windows have been kept closed for some time after they have been occupied, the air often contains two or three times as much of this poisonous gas, or from two to three parts in a thousand. If this air is breathed for any length of time it speedily causes headache, weariness, and loss of strength. Persons who spend great part of their lives in rooms filled with bad air become pale and sickly, and are liable to many more diseases than those living in pure air.
    85 The air always contains a considerable quantity of moisture, which varies very much at different times of the year and in different places. When the quantity of moisture is so great that it settles upon objects and makes them damp, it is injurious to health; and houses in which the walls and foundations are damp are always unhealthy.
    A large quantity of moisture passes away from the lady in the air that is breathed out from the lungs, and a great amount is produced by the burning of gas and other lamps.
    86. Not only is the air of close rooms and houses rendered injurious by the carbonic acid and water produced, but it is made still more poisonous by the decaying animal matter which passes off in our breath, and which is also given out by the walls and floors of unclean houses, by dirty clothes, and by that air which comes into the house through drains or passes over stinking dust-bins and heaps of decaying refuse.
    [-78-] Whenever a house smells close and fusty to a person coming in out of the open air, it is always unhealthy, and sooner or later will produce illness in those who live in it. The good health that persons who live in houses in open country places enjoy is entirely owing to the pure air they breathe. But even in country villages the air is often rendred unwholesome by cesspools or dung-heaps being kept close to the house, or by the filthy habit of throwing the house-slops and dirty water on the ground close to the door.
    87. A full-grown person takes into his lungs about two-thirds (2/3) of a pint of air every time he breathes, and when not breathing quickly, from running or hard work, he usually does so about eighteen times every minute; this is equal to twelve cubic feet every hour. This quantity of air weighs nearly one pound, so that we actually take into our lungs nearly twenty-four pounds of air every day, a greater weight than our food and drink taken together.
    88. The air that passes out of our lungs is quite unfit to support life if breathed again, even when mixed with ten times its bulk of pure air, therefore the air in our living and sleeping rooms must be constantly changed, or it would soon become poisonous. Persons have often been killed by being shut up in close rooms or in ships during storms.
    The burning of a candle renders the air nearly as impure as the breathing of a single person, and every gas burner consumes a very much larger quantity.
    89. The impure air that passes off from our bodies and that produced by the burning of lamps and fires, is always, from being heated, lighter than before, it [-79-] therefore rises and at first collects in the upper part of the room, unless it is allowed to escape.
    In a room that has a fire-place a stream of air is usually passing up the chimney, fresh air coming in by the cracks round the doors and windows. No bedroom should be slept in without a fire-place unless ventilation is otherwise provided for; even the quantity of air coming in round the window and door is not suffcient, it is therefore much better to sleep with the window open. This may be done without causing a draught, by placing a board three inches wide on its edge ruder the lower sash, which is thus raised, causing a pace between the two sashes in the centre of the window; through this the air enters and being directed upwards does not cause a draught.
    90. It is much more desirable to let the air come into a bedroom through the window than through the door, as the house being closed at night the air often come through the drains or damp cellars, and is not as pure as that which comes from outside the house. Gas is not desirable in close sitting or bedrooms, its effect on the air being much more injurious than candles or lamps.

    91. The fuel used for cooking our food and warming our dwellings is usually coal or coke; in some parts wood or peat is employed, and occasionally coal gas.
    92. The heat produced during the burning of fuel is given out when the carbon of the fuel unites with the oxygen of the air, and carbonic acid gas is produced, as it is by the breathing of men and animals. This poisonous gas usually passes up the chimney with some unburned carbon which forms the smoke.
    When charcoal is burnt, the carbonic acid is produced without smoke, and therefore it is often used a stoves without chimneys, and the carbonic acid escaping into rooms is frequently the cause of fatal accidents. All stoves without flues or chimneys to carry off the carbonic acid are dangerous, and many persons have been poisoned by their having been used.
    93. The heat produced by the burning of any kind [-81-] of fuel makes the air in and around the fire much lighter, and it rises rapidly over the fire, usually passing up the chimney. More than nine-tenths (9/10) of the heat of a common grate passes up the chimney in this manner, and is wasted. If the grate is constructed of thick solid metal, this conducts away a large quantity of the heat so that it is impossible to keep in a very small fire in an iron range, whereas a mere handful of fuel can be kept alight in a grate lined with fire brick or fire-clay which does not cool the burning fuel in the same manner metal does. Part of the heat produced is thrown out by the fire, and passes into the room. In ordinary grates the amount of heat passing off in this manner is very much lessened by the thick bars which are frequently placed in the front of the grate.
    94. Ordinary fire-grates are most extravagant modes of using fuel, and are not employed by the people of any other nation. Not only is a good deal of the heat carried away up the chimney, and by the conducting power of the iron, but the shape of the grate and the bars also prevents much being thrown out into the room.
    95. An ordinary grate may, however, be made more economical. If it be lined with bricks, tiles, or fire- clay, and the open bars underneath be closed, either by fire-clay or a piece of tin plate, the air will have to enter in front where the fire will be brightest, and no heat will be thrown down into the ash pit.
    96. Cooking ranges with an oven on one side are very useful in a small family. If well constructed they will bake bread, meat, and pies or puddings very perfectly.
    Even when there is a low fire the oven can be used [-82-] for stewing, and slow cooking can be done on the top much better than over a common fire.
    A boiler by the side is not so important as an oven. Boilers are liable to get filled with the deposit or rock from the water; and if they are of cast iron, they are apt to crack.
    As an example of a good cheap open range, the following may be taken; it has a fire-clay back to

prevent the heat passing away where it is not required, a good sized oven with the door to let down in front, and a boiler. Grates of this kind are not made by many manufacturers, and are sold at a low price.
97. Cooking stoves are much more convenient and economical in use than ranges. They are used by almost all persons in America, and are now very largely [-83-] employed in this country. A very good pattern is shown in the engraving. It has an open fire which can be used for broiling and toasting. This fire is quite under control, and can be raised or lowered in a few minutes by opening or closing the doors so as to cause a strong current of air to pass through the

burning fuel or over it as required. The size shown will bake a joint as large as a leg of mutton, or two tins of bread admirably.
    The cooking vessels can be put down on the fire or placed on the hot iron top, and shifted so as to receive as much heat as required.
    The stove can also be used as a hot plate for [-84-] preserving or stewing. The open fire is cheerful, and the stove is a good heating stove as well as cooking stove. Any large boiler placed on the top will furnish an unlimited supply of hot water. If placed in front of an open fire-place these stoves require about six feet of iron pipe to be placed up the chimney. Being perfectly movable they can be carried by the owner from one house to another and placed in front of any fire-place. They are sold by Smith and Welstood, Ludgate Circus.
    98. Gas-stoves.-Gas when employed as ordinary fuel is exceedingly expensive, being at least five or six times as dear as coal. When the gas is burned inside the oven in which meat is to be baked the vapour arising from the burnt gas renders the meat sodden and unpleasant, and quite different from the meat cooked in an ordinary oven or before the open fire.
    Gas can however be used as an occasional source of heat with great economy as it is instantly lighted and put out; there is no waste of fuel or loss of time. The best small gas stoves are those that can be placed on a table and burn the gas mixed with air, when it produces a pale blue flame which does not smoke any vessel placed within it. These stoves are particularly useful in heating a kettle of water in the summer time, or when there are no fires in the house.

    99. Flame, which gives the light employed in our houses during the absence of the light of the sun, is always produced by the burning or combustion of inflammable gas.
    When a candle is lit, the fat, wax, or other material of which it is formed, is melted, then drawn upwards into the flame by the attraction of the wick, it is there heated so strongly that it is converted into gas, which burns as fast as it is made, thus producing the flame. In oil lamps the same happens, and in gas burners the gas burns as it escapes.
    100. The gas which is burnt to give us artificial light, whether obtained from coals and supplied through pipes, or produced in the burning of a lamp or candle, consists chiefly of two substances, namely, hydrogen, which is always a gas, and carbon, which when not united with hydrogen or any other substance is usually a black solid, like charcoal or soot.
    [-86-] 101. Both these substances burn in the flame, uniting with the oxygen of the air. The hydrogen in burning forms water, a large quantity of which passes off from every flame in the form of vapour or steam. Many gas lights in a close room make the air very damp, and the moisture they produce may often be seen settling on the cold glass of the windows, or even running down the walls. The carbon or charcoal when burnt forms carbonic acid, an invisible gas. When there are many gas lights in a badly ventilated room, or even one in a room that is not ventilated at all, the air becomes very unwholesome from the presence of carbonic acid gas.
    102. If there is not enough air to enable both the carbon and the hydrogen to burn, the hydrogen burns first, and part of the carbon passes off in the form of smoke. By putting any cold pieces of metal, glass, or earthenware into a flame, the carbon is prevented from burning and settles on the metal or glass, covering it with black soot.
    103. Candles, which were formerly very generally used, give out very little light and are the dearest mode of producing light.
    Much may be learned of the nature of flame by watching attentively that of a common candle; at the bottom is a pale blue light which is caused by the fresh air rising against the flame and producing the perfect burning of both the carbon and the hydrogen; in the interior of the flame is a dark centre which consists of the unburnt inflammable gas rising from the wick; this cannot burn until it reaches the air outside. The outside of the flame is very bright-it is there only the gas burns.
    [-87-] If a small slip of wood be held for a moment steadily across the centre of a flame, it will be seen that the part in the middle is not burnt, only that which was at the outside of the flame.
    104. The oil used in lamps is of two distinct kinds. The fat greasy oils, such as seal or whale oil from animals, and olive or colza oil from vegetables. To obtain a good light from these fat oils it is necessary to make the flame hollow, and admit air into the interior, as is done in what is termed an Argand burner.
    In order to cause a strong current of air through the flame of an Argand, a tall glass chimney is requisite.
    105. The mineral oils, called paraffin or petroleum oils, are the cheapest oils in use They contain a very great amount of carbon or charcoal, and if they are burned without a chimney this escapes into the air in dark clouds of black smoke. These oils, therefore, require to be burned in a properly constructed lamp, so that sufficient air shall be sent against the flame to consume all the carbon.
    The best paraffin lamps are those with a single flat wick, which is able to be turned to any required height above the wick tube A, by small toothed wheels turned by a handle, B. The large quantity of air required by the flame rises up through the cone or cap C, and is directed against the sides of the flame, producing a complete combustion of the carbon, and a very brilliant light.
    Paraffin or petroleum oils were formerly sold containing much volatile inflammable spirit. At the present time no mineral lamp oil must be sold which is, dangerous.
    Petroleum lamps are perfectly free from danger if [-88-] properly used. The oil-holder should be of glass, as if made of metal, it is apt to become heated. The lamps should always be filled before dark, and never after being lighted.
    Any oil spilled on the outside should be carefully wiped off; or it will produce a disagreeable smell when

the lamp is used. To light a petroleum lamp the glass chimney should be removed, then the wick turned above the slit in the cone, and when lighted instantly turned down again; the chimney should then be put on and the wick turned up so as to produce a large bright flame without smoke, but so as to produce the full flame, when the lamp burns without smell. If the flame is turned down low, there is no saving of oil, [-89-] as a large quantity is sent off in vapour and produces a most disagreeable smell.
    106. Sponge or spirit lamps are made for using the very inflammable spirit termed benzoline. They are filled with sponge or cotton wool which is moistened with benzoline, the wick-holder is then screwed on and the wick turned up level to the top; when lighted a small flame, rather greater than that of a candle, is produced. As the benzoline is very inflammable these lamps should never be trimmed after dark, or near a fire, as the vapour may take light. If trimmed in the day-time, and only enough spirit poured in to moisten the cotton wool, they are quite safe, and .are the cheapest source of a small light. When used as night lights they should always be placed under a chimney as the vapour escapes and smells when they are turned down low.
    Coal gas is unquestionably the cheapest source of light, but its economy is not so great as is generally imagined; the flame cannot always be brought where it is wanted, consequently a much greater amount of light is necessary than when movable lamps are employed.
    For small rooms, the two-hole, or fish-tail burner is best, being cheap, simple, and capable of causing a very perfect combustion of the gas. With this burner the flame is spread out into a thin, flat sheet, by the two currents of gas striking against one another. In a fish-tail burner the gas should always be turned on so as to cause a full-sized flame without flickering, as otherwise the gas is not perfectly burnt. A large-sized burner should not be used where a smaller one will answer. The flame gives a much brighter and steadier [-90-] light when placed horizontally, with the flat sides turned up and down, than when burned upright in a glass globe, when the flame always flickers and is injurious to the eyes. An ordinary-sized fish-tail consumes from three to four cubic feet of gas per hour, and gives the light of from six to nine candles.
    Where a great amount of light is required a circular or Argand burner is more economical than the fish-tail. In most burners the chimney is too high; this causes too strong a current of air, and a great loss of light ensues. An Argand with a ring having fifteen holes, should not have a chimney more than seven inches high. Such a burner will consume about five cubic feet of gas in an hour, and give an amount of light equal to that of fifteen sperm candles.
    In all cases where gas is used, the room should be ventilated, or the air will become very unhealthy from the great amount of carbonic acid and vapour of water produced.
    Explosions sometimes occur when gas has escaped from a leaky pipe or a burner that has been left open. The explosion is generally caused by some person taking a lighted candle to discover the leakage, when the escaped gas takes fire instantaneously, and burns with a violent explosion. Whenever there is a strong smell of escaped gas, the maincock at the meter should be immediately turned, and the doors and windows opened to allow the gas to escape. No attempt should be made to search for the leak with a light, but notice should instantly be given to a gas-fitter.

    107. THE healthiness or unhealthiness of a house depends very greatly upon its degree of cleanliness; dirty, uncleaned houses are always more or less unhealthy. In country places, where the ground around a house is not paved with stone, care should be taken that no puddles of dirty water remain close to the house, as they not only render the air damp and unwholesome, but cause much dirt to be brought in on the feet.
    Slops of dirty water, tea-leaves, coffee-grounds, &c., should never be thrown out near the house, as they decay and are injurious.
    All decaying vegetable and animal matter near a house is injurious. Cabbage-leaves, potato and apple- parings, and other waste vegetables should never be thrown into the dust-bin, but should always be burnt; which can always be done if they are first dried by throwing them at the back of the fire or in the ash-pit.
    The dust-bins of houses in town should only be [-92-] used for ashes; instead of using dust-bins, it is a much better plan for the dust to be put into a galvanized iron pail and carried away each day, as is done in many towns.
    108. The inside of the house not only becomes dirty by the dust carried in by the air and the dirt brought in by the feet, but from the odour or smell given out by our skin, and by the lungs with the breath.
    This smell or odour is absorbed by all porous substances, as the walls, floors, and ceilings; it then decays, and gives rise to that close, sickening, unwholesome smell, which is present in all dirty houses, especially such as are overcrowded. No house with such a smell can possibly