Household Administration Part 13

Should not parents inform themselves diligently on these matters? for there are warnings and to spare from physician and educationalist upon this reckless wreckage of the nation's most valuable a.s.set. It was pointed out ten years ago that the imposition of adult duties upon the child, or even upon the young adolescent, is the most effective machinery for the manufacture of the unemployed and the unemployable.

Only now, however, are bye-laws being sanctioned which impose at all adequate restrictions upon child labour. For a longer period the steady migration of the rural population from country to towns has been bemoaned, as coupled with the risk lest the deterioration of the individual decline into the degeneration of the race. Nevertheless, in spite of the sustained efforts of the Rural Housing a.s.sociation and of private individuals, the housing problem still lies at the root of some at least of this exodus. Miserable and inconvenient as are hundreds of our cottages, their number is still insufficient in many places to meet the demand; so perforce the young people of marriageable age must go, or the elementary code of decency must be violated.

The curse of alcohol,[114] too, lies heavy on our land; it shortens life, incapacitates for work, impoverishes and degrades; visits in innumerable forms the sins of the parents upon their innocent yet grievously afflicted children; promotes crime and perverts judgment.

Each year brings more statistical and biological evidence of its enduring and deteriorating effects upon humanity. It seems strange, therefore, that the law to insist upon the provision of an adequate water supply for every dwelling remains entirely insufficient to meet the most urgent needs of many town streets as well as country villages.

Cleanliness is consequently impossible, and the public-house must be perforce frequented, for it provides a beverage more palatable and perhaps as wholesome as the cottager's nearest supply.

XI. THE SOURCE OF THESE CAUSES TO BE FOUND IN FAULTY ADMINISTRATION OF THE HOME

May not the causes of some considerable proportion of this apathy be traced to a want of popular faith in the teachings of hygiene? Is not one source of the prevalent unbelief in its tenets to be found in the widespread ignorance of the right administration of human life in the home, which turns out therefore a product of unhealthy, inharmonious citizens, who are a source of weakness to their country and a menace to civilisation? How could it be otherwise? If the cradle of life be defective, and its occupants be debilitated, it is not the nurslings alone upon whom the penalties will fall; whereas if home administration be guided by intelligence, and the quality of the inmates be high, individual and national prosperity are a.s.sured. The burden of responsibility or the privilege of promoting progress (according to the spirit in which obligations are a.s.sumed) rests with those who propose to be or already are parents; they being influenced in their turn by the educational and social conditions of their surroundings. Parental care and intelligent home management are thus intimately concerned with the physical evolution of the race, as well as with its moral development.

They must, therefore, a.s.sume an increasing rather than a diminis.h.i.+ng importance, if the full development of potentialities is to be insured in the rising generation, and racial progress promoted. Any proclivity to depreciate the dignity or to undermine the influence of these inst.i.tutions must be carefully examined and, if necessary, sternly repressed.

The fact that such tendencies show signs of sprouting is, it seems to me, a serious reflection upon the parental and domestic methods of the day. There is no smoke without fuel; faults are rarely all on one side; the young are not necessarily always in the wrong; therefore, a course of self-examination into their methods and motives may be a wholesome and fruitful discipline for those who are responsible for the nature and nurture of our children, and for the stability and efficiency of adolescent and adult. The absence of elasticity and adaptation to modern requirements among the elders of a family is often responsible for miserable homes, and for much arrested development in their inmates.

XII. HARMONIES AND DISHARMONIES IN HUMAN LIFE

Such a condition of affairs is, however, no longer to be tolerated; for the result of research carried out during the past and present centuries has opened up a hitherto unsuspected vista of progress to mankind, if and when he is intelligent enough to establish an harmonious unison between himself and his environment. Once the jarring discords of debility, disease, and deterioration have been modulated into the major chords of health--moral and physical--the latent potentialities of his higher life will be quickened into productive activity. The misconception of humanity which has denied to it the power to rise above the level of present attainments, which has dwelt insistently upon the hopeless degradation of the body, has brought about a condition of enervating and pa.s.sive fatalism, based upon the conviction that all reforming efforts must be directed solely to the preparation of one part only of man's triune nature for another and future sphere of existence. The duty and possibility of building a fit temple for man's spiritual nature here and now is the ideal of a minority to-day--in the future it will be that of an overwhelming majority; for the proofs of human capacity for progress, of man's power to control the forces of nature, are ever becoming more firmly authenticated, and all that they imply will soon become far better understood.

Though our knowledge of the subject is still incomplete and often tentative, much progress has been made, for instance, in a correct conception of the means by which the physiological balance of human life is adjusted, since Metchnikoff[115] drew attention to the interference brought about in man's normal development by certain fundamental disharmonies in his const.i.tution, of which the end is premature death, if not a pathological old age. It is quite evident that unjustifiable encroachments upon the reserve powers of the human body have been commonly permitted hitherto, and though each year brings fresh proof of the extraordinary endowment which it possesses to respond to the demands made upon it, yet each year also confirms the conviction that this reserve fund must in future be husbanded and used with economy.

When these powers are constantly drawn upon the body is necessarily reduced to a lower level of health. If the metaphor be employed of the body as a building in course of erection, it becomes obvious that if one of a group of converging thrusts be much weakened or withdrawn, a skilful rearrangement of forces may meet the strain, but the total strength of the structure is reduced. In how many cases has the temple of a child's body been permanently damaged by such withdrawals, or how many adolescents are launched into life with their capital of health seriously diminished by premature calls upon its resources.

The duty to maintain so far as possible a condition of physiological equilibrium in ourselves and in our children amounts to an obligation; for which reason health promotion during the plastic period of early life a.s.sumes a new importance. Of course, a certain capacity for vicarious activity is a.s.sociated with the various organs of the body in order to maintain their functions against temporary failure. Healthy tissues are furnished with power to respond to increased call for exertion. How often are they most sorely abused and unwisely taxed? Even now, when made aware of these facts, we are slow to apply to the conduct of life the lessons thus taught us, and continue to be filled with self-commiseration for the results to our bodies of overtaxing their capacity for accurate readjustment.

It is not possible, much less desirable, that the whole population should plunge into amateur studies of recent physiological advance, nor even that it should dabble, as its units are too much disposed to do, in pseudo-scientific pathological publications. But it is both possible and desirable for all who a.s.sume the direction of their own lives or those of children to "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" some fruits of the labours of others in the garden of health.

Were there one fixed standard of health to which all could attain, the practice of hygiene would be attended by a charming simplicity.

Unfortunately, modern science forces us to conclude that each individual can only reach his own particular standard of well-being. The grades of health are consequently infinite in number, and the task which devolves on parents and guardians to secure that the standard possible to each child under their care be attained is no light one. So general is the blindness to these truths, that the degree of health enjoyed is in most cases far below the possible standard; the results of ancestral vice, of parental ignorance, or of defective environment having sapped prematurely the springs of progressive potentiality.[116] The mental and physical balance is thus rendered relatively less stable and the powers of resistance to adverse conditions are diminished.

Happily, by virtue of its inherent power, but strictly in proportion to the vigour of this power, an organism is usually able to strike a new balance; for the capacity to regain its equilibrium is exquisitely delicate in human nature, _if_ the change be neither too sudden nor too severe. Throughout life this process of self-adaptation to the presence of morbid influences is constantly exercising its protective power. If, however, the effort to overcome disadvantageous conditions be very great or much prolonged, the life of the individual is never quite so vigorous and symmetrical as it might and should have been. In a luminous address, delivered at the University of Leeds some few months ago,[117] Lord Justice Fletcher Moulton inst.i.tuted a comparison between the human organism, which invariably tends to swing back to the normal whenever the balance of health is disturbed, and a s.h.i.+p which has safely weathered a stormy voyage. The s.h.i.+p, he writes, "is not stable, if stability means that she can defy the forces that bear on her to move her from her normal upright position, for ... the slightest roll of the sea ... will make her heel over. But she is stable, because when made to lean over, there is thereby generated a system of forces tending to return her to her place, which grows greater the greater is the displacement, and thus ultimately becomes sufficient to overpower the disturbing forces.... As the s.h.i.+p arrives safely, her construction must be such that disturbances tend to right themselves when stability is seriously endangered. Some corresponding righting force also tends to bring back an organism to its normal state."

The caution may not be amiss that the amplitude of the swing of a human pendulum, as well as the accuracy of its final balance, depends not only upon inherited nature and the amount of reserve force possessed, but will be stable or feeble, durable or transient, according to the influence of environment.

In what way, it will be asked, can individual capacity for health be gauged? to what degree can the power to progress or to resist encroachments be strengthened? at what age is intelligent supervision most important?

No concise and conclusive answers can be given to these most natural inquiries, but much light has been recently thrown upon the long duration of immaturity and a.s.sociated instability in mankind; upon the power of self-protection inherent in the body;[118] upon the influence thereon of its environment; upon the penetrating power of heredity; and upon the urgent importance of the adolescent period.

Further, it appears that the healthful body is equipped to withstand the attack of the bacteria of most diseases, though the mechanism of self-defence is of more kinds than one. Of the different pathological bacteria identified up to the present, for instance, some appear to be eminently sensible to one kind of action of normal blood fluids, while they are in a much less measure sensible, or are, perhaps, entirely insensible to others; a complication which enhances our respectful admiration for the marvellous and intricate system which provides for our bodily welfare. Obviously, human nature would be practically immune from disease if this protective machinery were always in good working order: unfortunately this is not invariably the case--hence disease. It is the duty of hygiene to insure constant physical equilibrium, but the intricate tactics of Nature are as yet so imperfectly understood that man is not yet an ally of great worth in her operations.

Nevertheless, the perception that the secret of individual health lies in fostering the resistant or protective elements, which should be present in normal blood, marks a great step in advance; for from it have originated measures to curtail the course of an illness and to reduce the risk of its recurrence. It is hardly Utopian to forecast, as Sir Almroth Wright has done, that the physician of the future will take upon himself a still higher role than he has. .h.i.therto a.s.sumed in this work of the prevention of ill-health, for he will attempt, by means of systematically strengthening individual capacity for resistance to disease, to remove the necessity for curing those who have fallen victims to its attacks. The gain in health, in happiness, in time and in money would be incalculable. For instance, had the death-rate _all_ over England during 1908 stood at 13.8 per thousand, instead of at favoured places only, no less than 33,831 lives would have been saved. Of these deaths, one-fifth were those of infants under twelve months old, the majority of them wholly preventable. What a reckless waste of racial and national capital; what an unnecessary cause of bitter sorrow and disappointment; what a source of unprofitable expenditure! The calculation has been made that for each death there are at least six cases of more or less serious illness, involving confinement to bed for a few days or a few weeks as the case may be. A simple multiplication sum will enable the reader to estimate the amount of serious illness represented by the total arrived at: the loss in time, health, happiness and efficiency is incalculable.

The bright prospects for human health in the future, therefore, rely largely upon the use which will be made of this protective machinery, and the prospective gain to humanity lies in the hope that when family histories are kept systematically and the inherited tendencies of a child are far more accurately known, the invading forces of disease will never get a footing, because precautions to strengthen the body's own defensive powers will be taken as a matter of routine practice. The physiological balance being thus preserved from disturbance, the great fund of energy now utilised to resist encroachments will be available for productive purposes.

So great a reformation cannot of course be brought about till shame is felt for the scandalously low standard of health now common among all cla.s.ses, nor until a general determination is developed to remove the minor miseries from which we all suffer more or less impatiently.

XIII. THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTAL HYGIENE IN FAMILY LIFE

The result of a curious obtuseness to the economics of personal and domestic hygiene is also responsible for another serious dereliction of parental duty, by which health and progress have been grievously, though quite unnecessarily and constantly, hampered. I refer to the general failure to economise nervous energy or to take any interest in what is rightly called mental hygiene. Yet Press and people alike deplore the evident increase of mental abnormalities, and antic.i.p.ate the future with undisguised anxiety. It has been well said that though men carry more of the wood, women carry not less of the worries of life. They _may_ in some cases escape the physical toil which strengthens; they do _not_ escape the mental toil which demoralises and kills spirit and energy if not body and health. Now, though the brain tissues do not create mental activities, nevertheless we all know that they are conditioned in some inexplicable way by that organ. Derangement in any part of the brain deranges or diminishes its functions; non-development in any part of the brain can and does arrest mind growth. Chronic over-fatigue and exhaustion, anaemia however produced, the circulation through the nervous tissues of impure blood, alter the character of the mental processes.

The results of starvation may so distort them, that the horrors of the French Revolution are attributed by some authorities to this particular cause. That the imperfect lymph circulation a.s.sociated with adenoid vegetations accounts for much so-called stupidity is one of the first fruits of the medical inspection of school children; that a severe shock may destroy intelligence is a fact familiar to every expert in mental hygiene. If it were generally known to parents that every impression received by this, the most sensitive of all organs, is stored up from early infancy, albeit subconsciously, and can at some future time rise up into the field of consciousness, influencing both thought and action for good or ill, a very different line of conduct would be taken towards the persons or the places which make up a young child's surroundings and most indelibly impress his brain cells.

It is surely time, therefore, that some broad outline of the process of normal development of the whole nervous system should be possessed by all in charge of children. Every mother, for example, should know that the movements of a new-born baby, such as the facial contortions observed during sleep, or the stretching and bending of the limbs in very young infants, involuntary and automatic in character, const.i.tute the simplest form of nervous activity. They are the necessary precursors of that intellectual ability, to the development of which parental ambitions aspire, and should merge into more advanced forms of nerve and muscle co-ordination, which, rightly utilised, are invaluable agents in infant education.[119] An intelligent nurse possessed of even this outline could begin quite early that training in physiological righteousness and in the strict voluntary control of the whole group of emotional expressions, of which, as a little reflection will quickly show, good manners largely consist. Presently, as the brain cells are stimulated into function by nutrition and a quicker and more extensive recognition of external sensations is acquired, a child will perform instinctive movements, such as sitting, crawling, standing, walking, jumping and throwing. Though considerable lat.i.tude must be allowed for their wide individual variation, failure to display these evidences of mental progress should call for careful investigation. Later on, skill in a hundred different forms of muscular activity should be displayed; but many years will elapse before full control of the body in all its parts will be acquired, and more years still must roll by before reasoned control of the mental and moral actions is developed. The last years of this long period of development are, perhaps, the most critical of the whole; though all depend for their favourable fruition upon an infinity of loving care and suitable provision for their appropriate activities.

There would be a marked reduction in exhausting disciplinary difficulties were every parent aware that, to the almost vegetative character of the first few post-natal months (when sleep will or should absorb at least twenty hours out of the twenty-four), will succeed a period of extraordinary activity, which lasts till about eight or nine years of age, when the mind is essentially an exploring organ; imitative, impressionable, retentive. Every legitimate opportunity for the liberal gratification of these characteristics should be provided, as well as suitable surroundings for the eager, inquiring brain.

Elaborate toys are not necessary, nor is premature book-learning permissible; but freedom to investigate, to experiment, to test, to explore, is the child's urgent need, as well as suitable arrangements for the intervening periods of profound sleep. Repressed activity is often responsible for breaches of discipline; so is insufficient sleep, following on over-excitement, accountable for "temper" and pa.s.sions.

The next phase of growth is still distinguished by this continued capacity for and dependence upon muscular activity, but the mind becomes more reflective, more productive. The power to initiate should develop during this stage of development, as well as increased power to control mental and bodily functions; and, throughout each of these periods, there should be a steady, unintermittent formation of good habits. At first, the nature of these will be chiefly physical; the habitual performance of the bodily functions should be safeguarded, until their neglect is attended by discomfort and their violation becomes almost painful. Then, by degrees, the moral and mental nature develops.

Thus is the child prepared for the stress and turmoil of the long and anxious years of adolescence; when, under the influence of new emotions, of fresh temptations, of unfamiliar powers, the character built on the sands of parental indulgence is undermined, if not swept clean away; whereas when built on the firm rock of good habits it emerges unshaken from the storm.

That childhood is an honourable estate must be now evident; pregnant as it is with possibilities, pathetic in the risks a.s.sociated with its plasticity and dependence. Should it therefore be necessary in the twentieth century to point out that, when the fund of nervous energy is constantly exhausted by deficient sleep and poor food; when a demand on function in advance of what nature is prepared to comply with is persistently made, as it has habitually been in our schools; when exaggerated and pernicious stimuli are allowed to fatigue and to paralyse our child population; when inadequate training in the right conduct of life is provided, and no information given on the dawning functions of potential parenthood; when premature responsibility is imposed or precocious and unwholesome independence is permitted; worst of all, when, through parental disease or alcoholism, the brain tissue is of too poor a quality to resist the strain of modern life--it is no matter for surprise that mental instability and insanity are on the increase, nor that degenerates hamper by their helplessness and crime the productive capacity of the normal.

The importance of mental hygiene calls for no more emphasis on my part; though, did s.p.a.ce permit, further ill.u.s.trations might be given of its scope. It includes the methods in our nurseries, the curriculum of our schools, the care of our adolescents, the increasing differentiation of our industrial processes, the character of our often miscalled recreations. It is concerned with the warding off of nervous breakdowns, and, with Goethe, it would call the attention of all women to the fact that the secret of rest is found not "in quitting a busy career, but rather the fitting of self to one's sphere." It views with anxiety the growing disregard of religious obligations and restraints, and emphasises the grave antenatal responsibilities of parents for their offspring; they who should be the most ardent advocates of a sound heredity, as well as the promoters of a good home environment for their children.

XIV. WOMAN'S RESPONSIBILITIES FOR HOME ADMINISTRATION

Thus, though the human const.i.tution is still imperfectly understood, though its intricacies and the details of environmental influences are still mainly undefined, the women of every nation must nevertheless see to it that progress in the administration of the home keeps pace with modern demands for revised methods and less conservative practice, in order to give every chance of normal health to their occupants.

It is a serious reflection upon many housekeepers that the hall-mark of progressive civilisation, namely growth in power to organise, is generally absent from their domestic methods. The time will come when it will be to them a matter for the deepest searchings of heart that they are directly and inexcusably responsible for a ma.s.s of the disharmonies which disfigure the fugue of family life. The fact is too certain to be denied. Homes have not developed in proportion to the opportunities offered, and the chief opponents to progress have been their organisers.

The economic link they form between the physical economics of the individual and the social economics of the nation has been unnoticed.

Reference to the hygienic significance of due economy of time, of strength and of health, as well as of money, has. .h.i.therto been generally met with incredulous smiles; and though home has been extolled as the place for children, how scant has been the attention devoted to their legitimate requirements, and how few demands for special training have emanated from, or been attempted by, those who have undertaken the sole charge of young lives during their most important and impressionable years.

The new movement, designed to foster the science and art of right living, cannot gain strength and influence unless it receives the whole-hearted support of the millions of women whose lives and energies are absorbed in the care of man's physical needs. It behoves _them_ to recognise that intuition and tireless industry are insufficient qualifications for their imperial service, and they must themselves promote the subst.i.tution of systematic training for rule-of-thumb anomalies.

This training must be varied and comprehensive. No other profession is concerned with so many interests nor a.s.sociated with more fateful responsibilities. For those who can afford the time, it should include a general acquaintance with the biological basis of life, and should further direct attention to the vast mental and moral endowments which give pre-eminence to our race. The products of literature and art and the records of natural and moral science afford ever present evidence of the extent of these endowments, and of the executive capacity a.s.sociated with their utilisation.

Chemistry must play a prominent part in the training, were it only for the insight it gives into the inviolable law of cause and effect!

besides which physiologists tell us that the chief commerce of our bodies with their environment is chemical; therefore, this subject becomes an indispensable element in any comprehensive course of domestic training. Without a working acquaintance with the physics of water, of heat, or of air, a housewife is at the mercy of her architect, if not of her plumber and her servants. In the absence of an introduction to bacteriology she lives in constant perplexity over the vagaries of her larder; and is at a loss to understand the sources of fermentation or the methods of infection by the majority of known diseases. Without an insight into economics she is helpless in the hands of the advertiser or the vendor of patent preparations, all of whose wares are warranted to perform impossible feats with an infinitesimal expenditure of trouble.

At their best these preparations are expensive, and at their worst they are injurious to health.

Some personal practice of the domestic arts is also advisable even for the wealthy; it is indeed essential to a right adjustment of the daily duties in a home, though naturally the degree of skill acquired will depend on the style of living. A study of hygiene in sufficient detail is of course imperative, and while it will remove difficulties by explaining common errors in diet, habits, and dress, it will be found materially to lighten labour. Finally, hygiene will render extraordinary a.s.sistance in the right rearing of children and in the general arrangements of family life.

The objections may here be advanced that the study of these scientific subjects is uncongenial to those whose temperaments are artistic or literary; upon these people sanitary science has surely meagre claims, while life is not long enough for all to pursue such exhaustive studies.

The reply to the first objection must be in the negative. There can be no health under modern conditions of existence unless those who a.s.sume responsibility in the affairs of men possess a scientific acquaintance with its right regulation. The subjects just enumerated are the very pillars which support the temple of Hygeia. But, for the encouragement of these complainants, be it added that the temple walls demand decoration; the shelves must be filled with wholesome mental provender; the gifts of both artist and author are therefore contributory to harmonious living, and an unlimited scope is offered to their utilisation. The building which shelters a healthy family, for instance, should be characterised not only by advances on existing provisions for convenience but by symmetry in its parts. The test of beauty (use, ease, and economy) can certainly not be pa.s.sed by a large proportion of modern houses, neither do they provide the s.p.a.ce which gives to each occupant "a chance to utilise his own gifts or to pursue his own hobby." s.p.a.ce needs in its turn regulation, for the saving of steps must be considered and compactness is essential. Decorations and furniture should also be suitable in form and colour to their purpose, not a mere heterogeneous confusion of inappropriate colours and articles, out of tune one with the other.

The natural needs of normal children, too, must be more taken into account in the future than in the past, and the conveniences offered by scientific progress must be far more generally introduced into the most modest homes. Here is a huge field for intelligent, artistic work; for true beauty and real utility are near of kin.

It has been said that as in the world of life the localisation of function made the organ subsequently to become responsible for that function, so may the differentiation of labour develop individual talents, just as the exercise of our vital activities has led to the differentiation of parts in a house. Thus, as satisfaction of hunger is a first necessity, eating made the kitchen, where means for the gratification of this instinct were localised. By degrees the growth of men's social and intellectual demands led to the setting apart of a chamber for conversation; that is, the parlour. Storage of bread called the pantry into existence; increased refinement necessitated a scullery for the was.h.i.+ng of cups and platters. Centuries, however, elapsed before the enlarging personality of the individual demanded privacy for the toilet and the right to isolate himself periodically from the bustle and publicity of group life. The general provision of separate bedchambers for each unit of a household is not even yet habitual, though most desirable in the interests of health. Reparation of the omission will mark a further phase of social evolution, and will remove one disintegrating force now continually at work in home life. Here again the artist will most advantageously collaborate with landlord and with health authorities to devise means for the suitable satisfaction of this laudable demand.

Further objections to the adoption of any comprehensive schemes for training housewives of all ranks are found in the apparent want of time available for the purpose and the prohibitive cost incurred if the period of education be prolonged. The best answers to both objections are found in the movement now active all over Europe and North America to furnish more and fuller opportunities for this training, and to extend, not curtail, its duration. More than this: this movement, which generally originated in the desire to improve home life among the poorest, has recently extended itself just as generally to inst.i.tutions for higher education, upon whose pupils and students its claims are now recognised. There is no suggestion, for instance, in Germany or England, Norway or the United States, of restricting the education of girls by this movement or of prematurely enforcing upon them technical instruction. The growth of public opinion is due rather to a belated realisation that the end of all education is the betterment of life, and that suggested applications to the practical concerns of daily life in the course of a girl's general education make for the sounder a.s.similation of theory by the pupil, and are thus contrived a "double debt to pay."

The progress of preventive medicine has also introduced another incentive to the diffusion of this training; for it affords convincing proofs that the foundation of the national health is laid in the home.

If, however, the foundation is permitted to be imperfect the edifice must necessarily be unstable.

Among other influences prejudicial to family life, the force of which was for a long time unsuspected, mention must be made of modern industrialism, the reopening of professional life to women, with its a.s.sociated financial independence and the increasing seductions of society. For a century past the tendency has been to discredit housekeeping as an unsystematised occupation, which has emphasised the common and sometimes humiliating financial dependence of its representatives. The first nation to perceive the importance of stemming this dangerous tide was the United States, where conclusive demonstrations are now offered of the fact that intelligent housekeeping calls for a high degree of capacity, and that its problems demand the resources of a university for their solution. By the recognition of housecraft as a profession, American colleges accomplished even more than at first they antic.i.p.ated. A satisfactory proportion of their students return to home life convinced of its scope and importance, and satisfied to perform the duties which there present themselves, instead of seeking outside occupations and divorcing themselves from family interests. The King's College Course for graduate students in Home Science and Household Economics bids fair to exercise an influence of as satisfactory, though naturally of a slightly variant, character.

XV. THE FUNCTIONS OF THE HOME