Essentials of a nutritive diet are that it be varied in chemical elements, capable of producing energy and building tissue, capable of being digested and assimilated, and incapable of injuring the body cells. Indigestion means failure in absorption and failure to move along the digestive tract in good time. Digestion is the breaking up of food into such form that it may be absorbed into the blood current. This is accomplished by the aid of the digestive secretions containing certain active chemical factors called enzymes, of which there are some dozen or more. Since these enzymes have distinct functions, one to digest protein, another to change starch to sugar, another to split fat, the inadequacy of a one-piece diet is apparent. Food stuff wholly indigestible bears much the same relation to the body that slate in the coal does to the furnace.

Conclusion. The process of metabolism, the transformation of food elements into body tissue and energy, is so complex, and the laboratory work of the body cells so elusive, that many of our conclusions on diet are drawn from observation and experience rather than from chemical demonstration. From such observation of many children, given a fair variety of decently wholesome food, in a community of good markets, rich garden soil, and fair wages, the conditions of eating are frequently more important than arbitrary dietaries. Plenty of sleep in fresh air is the fundamental condition of a good digestion. The crowded, illventilated sleeping room is a primary obstacle to nutrition. Allowing a child to go to school without his breakfast is unpardonable abuse. If a child refuses to eat he should be put to bed. If the mother assumes no responsibility, he should be turned over to the school medical inspector. Hurrying through breakfast, hurrying to school, hurrying home to luncheon and back again, eating to the nagging accompaniment of a fretful, irritable parent, or in fear of an exacting teacher, is the second gravest hindrance to digestion. Eating too fast and drinking large quantities of water inhibit the work of the enzymes. Continuous gum-chewing overworks the salivary glands. Insufficient good food at home sends the child to the cheap candy counter. The laborious day of the wage-earning mother and the innate sel

fishness of the ignorant mother, whether poor or rich, condemns the child to half cooked food and cheap bakery products instead of economical, nutritious dishes and wholesome sweets. Bad habits of eating are generally formed before the school age, and reformation is difficult except through the slow process of education. But children are fairly reasonable and interested in physical processes if the story is well told. Their memories are short and reiteration is the price of success. The most far reaching progress is that of the educated child who becomes the parent of the next generation.

Chicago

SARAH M. HOBSON, M. D.

The Nature Study Problem in Large Cities

CH

HE average teacher of nature study in a large city would be loath to admit that there is such thing as the nature study problem-too many large ones constantly confront her. For example, there is the usual problem of what to teach, where to get material, books, apparatus, etc., added to which is the more important fact that she herself had no nature study in her elementary school education. Many a teacher has almost exhausted herself in bringing in loads of material from the country, and many others have spent freely of their own money to provide special apparatus and other supplies for class demonstration.

If the selection of what to teach is given over to her the teacher usually selects from among her own experiences those which she considers have been most valuable to her. Such procedure is natural, therefore expected. The material and teaching of every other school subject is fashioned in much the same way. Assuming then that some, perhaps all, of her early experiences were in the country or small city, she must have been impressed by fields and herds, flowers, trees, and birds. Her early associations were with what is popularly called Nature. Is there any wonder that she earnestly longs for her group of children to have an opportunity for at least some of these vivid, wholesome experiences? Week-end excursions into the country-loads of material is the sequel. All material thus provided generally costs much of the teacher's energy, time, and sometimes money. And then after all her effort the children usually get but little of the appreciation that has been hers. She finds her efforts have not produced the effects she anticipated and blames herself accordingly, but in this she is not justified. She should not expect the children to appreciate vegetation, even flowers, as she does. They cannot, they haven't the basis for it. An experience may elucidate the point: A teacher in one of the congested districts of Chicago has established the custom of taking home with her for

a week-end visit to the country one of her school children, thus furnishing outings for several children during the spring and early summer. One little girl seemed specially favored for her outing last spring; the weather was warm, there was abundance of sunshine, and the wild spring flowers were at their best. It was planned that Saturday should be spent by the city child and a few country children in romping among the wild flowers and other pretty vegetation of early spring. After playing until tired the children were told to gather any of the flowers they would like to take home. The country children plucked fresh blown flowers and the city child gathered green stems and some blades of grass. The action of the city child seemed very strange until the teacher remembered that the little girl's class at school owned and cared for a window box in which the little plants were but two or three inches high at the time. Make your own deductions.

Suppose another teacher has been less fortunate than the one already mentioned in that she is almost wholly unacquainted with the big out-of-doors we call the country. If she attempt to emulate the example of the one whose girlhood was spent mostly in the country she is under a still greater handicap than her fellow teacher. First, because she lacks the enthusiasm that results from experience, and secondly, because her information is more meager. Her procedure, therefore, follows her experience and she resorts to books. In such cases books may stimulate, but cannot take the place of first hand experiences. If from mere reading such teacher attempt to teach her class to appreciate the beautiful and splendid things of the country she finds her effort very far from satisfactory.

The ambition of both classes of teachers cited is most worthy, but impossible of realization. To furnish city children with an appreciation of country conditions and life would mean to have them experience country conditions and life, and the appreciation would be of their own getting. It would be fortunate indeed if the children of the large cities could have a well rounded country experience, but, except in rare instances it is possible only so far as country experiences may become city experiences. Herein lies

hope. That child in the city understands and appreciates harvesting, for example, just as far as he has had harvest experience. He appreciates plants and flowers that are growing to the extent that he has had experience in growing plants and flowers, and thus throughout the category. Can opportunities for these experiences be provided on a small scale in large cities? The nature study teacher should understand clearly that she may furnish material or opportunity for experience, but cannot possibly furnish the experience, or splendid group of experiences, back of the material.

Frequently, when class work with the specimens failed. to produce the interest that the teacher had hoped for, she selected an alternative. She took up a descriptive, informational study about things and then felt keenly the lack of a vast fund of information. The broad expanse of the nature study course also dawned upon her, and she sought refuge in the library, appalled by the magnitude of her undertaking.

But a change has come, not suddenly, no less surelya change in relative emphasis in education. Changing views in education go hand in hand with corresponding changes in school subjects, therefore nature study must conform. Nature study cannot be credited with, nor blamed for, the changing views in education. The change may be partially the result of a general feeling voiced by a certain school official more than a decade ago who, in speaking of the school children of a small city, said that they knew much but could do little.

Nature study leaders are agreed that nature study in cities is not for the purpose of furnishing city children with country children's experiences, neither is it to furnish information about things, but it is to furnish the children opportunities for experiences with things. From the standpoint of the teacher the situation is vastly improved, but she still finds herself handicapped in not having her own elementary school experiences in nature study as an asset; she also feels a lack of the tremendous momentum that goes with the long established school subjects. She finds herself in the role of a pioneer, helping the cause of the earlier pioneers in nature study.

The world is asking a different product from our schools