From this point of view it is evident that in order to make the profession of housekeeping a success, the fundamentals at least should be understood. Even college graduates going into business start at the bottom in order to become familiar with business methods. A mastery of the principles of the business of housekeeping is just as essential. This includes touching on many branches of science, biology, botany, physics, physiology, psychology, economics, and above all, chemistry. Besides this, a housekeeper should have some technical training; for, while experience is the best teacher, we can always gain in quickness of method and sureness of results from the experience of somebody else. This valuable home-maker of ours should also have some imagination and ingenuity, together with self-assurance, so that she need not be bound by a cook-book and prescribed equipment, but could use what material and utensils she has at hand and still produce satisfactory meals. She must also be able to gain variety through change of flavors, or manner of serving - appealing to the senses of the individuals to be served.

Each home-maker must necessarily know the individual requirements of her group and regulate her meals accordingly. Too scanty food prevents growth and lowers vitality, mental as well as physical; so much so that malnutrition is acknowledged by social workers to be a cause of backwardness, drunkenness, and crime. Too much food, on the other hand, dulls the mind and clogs the body. Poor choice may mean loss of a day's work, or the lowering of efficiency because of a headache or other minor ill. How often we hear, "So-and-So has one of her bilious attacks"; or, "Daughter has a sick headache to-day." Improper food also lowers the power of resistance to disease and causes susceptibility to colds.

In order to maintain the highest mental and spiritual life, the physical should be kept in such good working order as to be entirely subconscious. We cannot do our best mental work when we are conscious of the lunch we have just eaten.

Nature plans wonderfully. An animal, when left to itself, will pick out of a wide variety of foods those articles which will be most conducive to its health and growth. Instinct, however, cannot be relied on entirely in the training of children. Complete loss of appetite is usually the first symptom in most illnesses, and an abnormal craving for some one particular type of food may mean the need of the body for some special ingredient in that food. Whims and fancies are very easily acquired, however, and whenever possible should be avoided.

Habits and traditions have also grown up through the years concerning our food, and we still hear an ignorant nursemaid urge a child to eat the crusts in order to have curly hair, or tell an older child fish will give him brains. A meat diet has had to bear the blame for crime and misery for years.