There are the students who take a keen interest in observing the progress of mankind, who are watching the developments which affect humanity. Notable among these are teachers. Many noble teachers have gone abroad this year because of a feeling that they might gain much that would add to the lives of their pupils. Many of them have spent a year's salary for the trip with no hope of getting more in return than the satisfaction that

they are making themselves useful to others. I met many teachers who, not only had spent their money for their trip, but had left dear ones at home for the summer, had encountered the dangers of travel and had risked their lives in exposure to sickness and disease. Forgive me for holding a belief, which I express in all humility, that more sacrifices for the benefit of others are made by teachers than by any other class of workers.

The chief aim in the study of physiology is that we may be able to care for our bodies. An engineer who is well acquainted with the functions of every part of his engine can the better keep it from getting out of order and fix it when something is wrong.

It seems to me that eating is one of the most important subjects in physiology and hygiene. I may in this article go a little contrary to some of the copyrighted statements of the physiology but if I am wrong I am open to conviction.

How one eats is a matter of very little importance as far as health is concerned, but how food is prepared and how much one eats is of the utmost importance. We hear

a good deal said about mastication, about mixing the food thoroughly with saliva and chewing it well before it is swallowed, and while we do not condemn this, we claim that too much attention is called to this matter to the neglect of matters of vastly greater importance. The mouth is only a part of the stomach or we may say that the stomach is one part of the mouth and since nature always tries to adapt its organisms to the conditions in which they are placed it is very natural that the saliva in the mouth should have slight digestive action in converting a small part of the starch to sugar. It does not follow therefore that we should set about to turn our mouths into full

fledged digestive apparatuses. It is plain that the object of saliva was to moisten the food so that it could be easily swallowed. Most civilized people could get along quite as well. without any saliva as far as eating is concerned.

The dog and horse secrete an abundance of saliva but it has no effect in changing starch to sugar as it has in man.

If all the children would act upon the advice of some teachers of physiology who so ardently insist upon insalivation, it would be found in the course of a few generations to come, that nature was beginning to adapt herself to this new condition, that the secretory ducts which now line the intestines have been raised to the region of the mouth, that Dy and by food need only be taken into the mouth and chewed awhile and then ejected without being swallowed, and the stomach and intestines become one vast vermiform appendix.

Again we are told that we should chew our food for a long time that it may be ground up into fine particles and thus will be more easily digested after it is swallowed. There is some truth in this claim if one is willing to make a grist mill or sausage grinder of his jaws. The teeth were at one time a great service to man and he might be placed in such a condition that they would be of great service yet, but with civilized man teeth are becoming less and less necessary and the time is ap

proaching when the teeth will never get through the gums. It is a general principle in physiology that v hen any part of the body is used a great deal, a great deal of blood will flow to that part and it will be greatly nourished and developed. If any part is not used it will dwindle away for lack of nourishment. This is the fundamental principle in physical exercise and treatment by massage. Ruminants at the present day have front teeth but they do not come through the gums. These teeth are now merely rudimentary but were once necessary and of great use and have dwindled away only from disuse.

The eye teeth in man have wasted away to a mere suggestion of what they once were. At a time long ago these teeth were long and a means of defense but now they are rudiments for man knows a better way of looking after his interests. In some animals these teeth have been raised higher and higher till they are now horns on the top of the head and can be used to a greater advantage as a means of defense.

The wisdom tooth in man is no longer of much advantage. It does not appear till later in life and then is subject to early decay. There seems to be a shortening of the lower jaw bone in man so that there is not room for all the teeth and a dentist is often called upon to extract a tooth or two to make room for the others.

We are speaking of teeth here only in reference to their use in grinding food. There are other considerations that may make it very desirable for one to have and preserve a good set of teeth. Beautiful teeth add to one's personal attractiveness, though it is by no means certain that one would not be just as handsome without teeth after we once got used to it. Teeth are also a valuable assistance in the production of articulate speech, but this is true of us only because we have from our youth learned to rely upon their assistance. As long as man has teeth he carries about with him the marks of a lower animal, and our teeth have been leaving us and will continue to leave us just in proportion as we make. advance in civilization. If all teeth should suddenly be taken from us at the present time we would no doubt experience great inconvenience because we have not yet learned how to cook.

Now, if what I have said above seems peculiar to any one, I would say that I have put a plain truth in that form only that I may more effectively say a word in favor of scientific cooking. I am aware that a great deal of fun has been made of the cooking schools that have endeavored to teach this great art but I am also aware of the headway this art is making notwithstanding the failures and excesses which might at first be expected. The intense interest in the depart

ment of cooking at the World's Fair in Chicago, conducted by Mrs. Rover, is an evidence that people are willing to learn the best way of preparing fuel to supply the energy needed by the body, if someone will show them how. This art is now being rapidly introduced into our public school system and is being taught at public expense as it should be, for nothing is so conducive to public health, morality, and well being, as proper feeding. What is eating? One evening after dark I was so placed that I could look through a large window info a well-lighted dining room where twenty people were seated at one table eating. I could hear no sound from the room, and it was amusing to watch the food being rapidly lifted to twenty hungry mouths. It was a sight which would furnish to any one a text for considerable thought. These people were simply, as an engineer would say "firing up." Every act of body or mind is made at the expense of a definite amount of energy which must be obtained from some source outside of one's self. The engine is fed with coal of such kind and in such form that its energy can be most easily extracted and converted into the energy of steam, and, just so, the food we eat should be so prepared that its energy can be most easily appropriated both for growth and work. In this is the reason for proper cooking. It will not do to rely on

the saliva and teeth to counteract the bad effects of poor cooking. The cook should do all the chewing before the food is served on the table. It is not necessary that a cook be an original investigator in physiology. Much close observation has been made on the result of different preparation of foods and these have been verified and written down in books so that any one who wishes may learn them. During the civil war a man was shot through the stomach; the wound. healed but an opening was left from his stomach out through his side. Through this orifice the doctors could look into the stomach at work and could from time to time take out a portion of its contents for examination.

Dogs are frequently used for this purpose, an incision being purposely made into the side in through the walls of the stomach. A silver tube is inserted in this opening and the wound heals about it without any particular inconvenience to the dog. This tube is kept corked. except when examination is to be made. When the dog is digesting his food he can be turned up like a jug and the progress of digestion observed. Suppose, for example, we are trying different preparations of egg. Have the dog swallow the white of the egg as it comes from the shell and it will be found to dissolve very slowly in the stomach. Now feed him the same boiled, and it will dissolve more

rapidly. Then beat up some of the same and it will dissolve quite rapidly in the presence of the gastric juice. This would plainly show that an egg omelet is a much more desirable preparation than either boiling or frying. Suppose we try pie crust. A little reflection ought to show what we might expect; pie dough is composed of particles of starch with a coating of grease. It is a dead weight through the whole. tract of digestion. A fireman would be just as reasonable who would first cover each nut of coal with a coat of fire-clay and shovel this into the fire-box with the expectation of getting up steam. A great many facts of this kind are known and we are not urging that people find out more of these facts but that they try to apply those already known. The cooking of the future will be of such a character that digestion will all be accomplished in the stomach and intestines and the mouth will be assigned a higher function in life.

Many evil effects result from over-eating. Too much coa! in a firebox is less effective in getting up steam than too little. Some eaters seem to think that they should continue to cram their stomachs until they are overcome with nausea. A better method is that of the man who had lost all appetite and ate at a fixed rate for fifteen minutes with his watch by his plate. Or of the man who regulated his eating by the hole in his

belt. The Romans had a way which might be practiced with great profit by some of our modern eaters. When a Roman was invited out to several social functions on the same day at each of which he would be expected to eat heartily, he would carry with him an emetic so that on his way to the next house he could vomit up what he had last eaten and so not disappoint his next host.

We have now a number who use a stomach pump, but only after nature has rebelled and forced them to it as a relief from torture.

When cooking is correctly done the danger from overeating will be lessened, but the evil will not be entirely corrected till the gluttons are all dead.

A good plan for a man who is not engaged in outdoor labor is to leave the table with a feeling that he would relish a little more.

It frequently happens, for obvi

ous reasons, that the most hygienic eating is found in the homes of the moderately poor. The rich are next best in this respect and the man with a fair income is the worst of all.

It does not, fortunately, require much money to satisfy the demands of good eating. It is gratifying to note that president Harper of the Chicago University has announced that he is going to try in his own family the experiment of living on three hundred dollars a year. This will be no new thing as far as the fact is concerned, for many a man from necessity has kept up a table for a much larger family for less money, and yet it will be a happy day for all when those who can afford more expensive eating will for the sake of their families and communities insist upon the proper cooking of the cheaper but equally nutritious foods.

The Ohio Music Teachers' Association will hold its next annual meeting in Cleveland during the holiday week in December.

While it is very desirable that every music supervisor, every school music teacher, every private teacher of voice, of piano, etc., in the state should be advised of the meet

ing, and also of the necessity of his presence and co-operation, that he may enjoy the fine recitals, grand concerts, the essays, discussions, etc., and bear his part in the reforms proposed, yet may I make a suggestive word in the premises, and to the school superintendents and the leading educational spirits