The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1909. DOMESTIC SCIENCE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12243, 17 June 1909, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1909. DOMESTIC SCIENCE.

At American universities no phase of education seems to be more popular among women than domestic science-r "household technology." The courses are becoming quite the *f ashion, and great universities like Columbia, Illinois and others give this important branch of education the emphasis which rightly belongs to it. Domestic science is largely applied science. The colleges for men early recognised the value of the application of science, hence the giumber and value of -their technical professional schools. At Columbia there is now a course on household management in which the students learn how to select and purchase foods, how to plan meals, how to equip a house, how to plan the work of the day, how to keep accounts, and finally study the wise division of the income. "Food management" is

the name of another course, which deals specifically with leftovers, the family dietary, and the individual problems of housekeepers, which are brought up for discussion. The University of Illinois, .at Urbana, offers a number of courses which have a definite relation to the affairs of the home. One professor gives her whole time to problems connected with household'science". In this connection a novel experiment is to be tried. The department of social scienca has rented a large dwelling house near the university buildings and divided it into two equal apartments. One is fitted up according to the most improved theories of household economics, the other in "the good old way" of our grandmothers. How far it is possible for a person of limited means' to adopt the first instead of the second scheme of housekeeping is the problem to be solved by experiments to last one year. In one apartment only the most modern furnishings have been installed. Heating, cooking, and laundry work are done by gas and electricity; the floors are varnished or waxed and covered with rugs. In the other apartment ' coal, wood, and coke are used to heat the roomSj as well as for .cooking. , Oil lamps are used for light, the water is drawn from a pump, and carpets are tacked to the soft pine floors. The classes in household science have charge of each of the apartments j .under the supervision of the professors: A careful account is to be kept of the expenses, the convenience, and the time consumed in the preparation oi foods and the discharge of all the other domestic duties. This is the first opportunity that college women will have had to see the two methods tested side by side., ..The department of home economics at the Uni- . versity of Missouri, is but .three years old. The regular course lends to a degree of B.S. in home economics. The ..work .includes the study of the house, sanitai/ion, decoration, etc. ; The .food work is taught by the inductive method, . the student developing recipes from general principles. The director,, who holds the only Ph.D. in home economics in the country, writes s—"We have a course in textiles and dress; on how to buy textiles intelligently,..arid how to dress hygienically, comfortably, convenl iently, economically, and• • .artistically-, which,, we believe, may %ell form a part of a college education^. Xn. the senior year we take up thWsubject of' home administration i -. W.e /also, give a course ■of dieteticSj which is a part 6!f"the regular inedjeal course' here in;ithe university, and give a'course •in .dietetics arid cooking for' the nurses in Vtlie training .school. . Wa are hoping some .time in the future to stiidy^the care of children by the laborjatory iriejthod/haying a department nursery in charge of someone with the training of a. trained nurse and trained kindergartherA This is'still in" the future." Tlfe University tef. • Nebraska, has just added tp;its domestic science equipment a beautiful hew building, devoted to the work in household -economics. Tlie second . and third •stories nr-a used for bedrooms/'parloiY and bathrooms,* with^ the lii-ge, weil-iiglited; room used for, domestic art, which occupies 'tlie. whole north wing of the third'floor. This university offers a 'four; gears' college course, 'leading to; tk^usual.oßJSL degcee in,home economics, which^isf'ft'tnodifiba- ■ tion. of- the general* $KJietiiikv course, of tha univefsityl ' In 'the suinmen 6i 19(38^ a graduate school .bf r , c hom.e economics was conducted at Cornell University. Here was^ an pppoiftunit^ foir meetirig and study' with tKe^/'mds't prominent scieritrets of the tirne^ Dr' r : Mendel/ of Yale University, and Dr. Zuitz/ of 3er<j lin, Germany, gave 6pecial>lectures> the two principal subiectsT be|hg:' nutrition and A:. lilghry interesting demopstration of. labaur-saving devices for the home was given by the heads of th^ department of hop]e "economics at the Cornell State Agricultural College. ..In another college for, women an intri-cate-machine, for measuring the energy derived from food, has bejen installed, and a series of expeririieirts is planned. ;to determined ;the;airiount 01, energy required ;in the different kinds of house work. From these determinations it is hoped that some estimate'of the1 leiigth1 of a reasonable Wbr^mg day of house-^ work can be made^ '-. .!■- .