Mrs. Anna N. Woodbury, Miss Carrie Henry, Mrs. Commodore Buchanan, Miss Margaret Edes, Mrs. Dr. J. O. Stanton, Mrs. Gen. O. M Poe, Mrs. Dr. J. Taber Johnson, Mrs. J. Ormond Wilson, Mrs. Dr. Alex. Shiras, Mrs. Dr. Trimble, Mrs. H. B. Bennett, Miss Gilfillan, Miss Purrington, Mrs. Doolittle, Mrs. O'Connor, Mrs. Gen. R. D. Mussey, Mrs. W. W. Curtis, Mrs. John Eaton, Mrs. H. S. Brinkerhoff, Mrs. Jay Camp, Miss L. Joseph, Mrs. C. D. Sloan, Mrs. D. Stockham, Mrs. Dr. J. T. Young, Miss Osborne, Miss B. Ross, Mrs. Butterfield, Mrs. Merrill, Mrs. B. H. Stinemetz, Mrs. W. R. Woodward, Miss A. Colley, Mrs. Gen. E. Whittlesey, Mrs. C. B. Bailey, the Misses Bailey, the Misses Camp, Mrs. George E. Baker, Mrs. and Miss Callan, Miss Duncan, Mrs. Dr. W. T. Okie, Mrs. Dr. E. S. Kimball, Miss Junken, Mrs. W. M. Gilson, Mrs. G. M. P. King, the Misses Stinemetz, Miss Ida Coppinger, Miss Mary Murray Lockwood, Mrs. Dr. Stansberry and Miss Stansberry, the Misses Bishop, Mrs. General Lockwood, Mrs. J. H. Voorhees, Mrs. W. Orme, Miss Clare Gant, Miss Snell, Mrs. R. W. Tayler, Miss Maria Tayler, Mrs. General Blake, Mrs. Maj. A. N. Nickerson, Mrs. Col. S. L. Tullock, Dr. W. W. Patton, Mrs. Pairo, Mrs. Dr. Page, Miss Calista Halsey, Miss A. Tolman Smith, Mrs. Gen. C. H. Hovey, and the Misses Chester.

The promoters of these lessons have had in view the establishment of a permanent school of cookery in Washington. During the course the girls of the two city normal schools, of the advanced grammar school, and the pupils of the Sumner High School attended one lesson or more; also the senior pupils of Park Seminary and their teacher, Mrs. G. M. Condron; Miss Ross's pupils; Miss Osborne's pupils; and the pupils of Mt. Vernon Seminary and their teacher, Mrs. Somers. The following letter was received from Hon. J. Ormond Wilson, superintendent of city schools and president of the National Education Association:

OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, FRANKLIN BUILDING,

Washington, D. C., October 25, 1879.

I have been much interested in the course of lessons on cooking given in this city by Miss Corson. She evidently has a thorough knowledge of the useful art she professes to teach, and is a most skilful and accomplished instructor. I cordially commend her as a teacher whose services are greatly needed in all our cities.

J. ORMOND WILSON, Superintendent of Public Schools.

The following letter from Dr. Patton, president of Howard University, was also received:

HOWARD UNIVERSITY, Washington, D. C., October 25, 1879.

DEAR SIR: Allow me to say that, partly from personal attendance and still more from the reports of intelligent ladies who were present, I feel free to express a high appreciation of the practical value of the course of lectures on cookery delivered by Miss Juliet Corson, of New York, who has also manifested a philanthropic readiness to place her instruction within reach of some who, though needing it, were not possessed of the ordinary means of securing it.

Yours, truly,

Hon. JOHN EATON, Commissioner, &c.

WM. W. PATTON, President of Howard University.

The representatives of several benevolent organizations conferred with Miss Corson on the subject of introducing instruction in cookery among those under their charge. At the invitation of the trustees of the Industrial Home School she visited that institution in Georgetown, and with the use of the articles regularly provided for their diet, the utensils of their kitchen, and the aid of the children themselves, showed what marvellous improvements could be made by skill, and also illustrated how successfully the subject could be taught to pupils of their ages. Among the trustees present were Mrs. W. W. Curtis, Mrs. J. S. Blackford, Mrs. S. A. Martha Canfield, Mrs. Jane C. Hitz, and Hon. John Hitz, consul general from Switzerland in the United States.

During Miss Corson's stay in Washington, Mrs. Sara Andrews Spencer, vice principal of the business college, engaged her services, assumed the financial responsibility of the experiment of having a practical cooking school, printed tickets, issued circulars, invited students and personal friends to aid her, moved her kitchen stove and utensils into the small hall of the college, and bought in market and at grocers' shops the materials required. Prof. Henry C. Spencer gave the use of the hall, gas, and fire free of charge.

The lessons were given from 8 to 10 P. M. each evening after the college classes closed. The first three nights it rained incessantly. Nevertheless, the attendance was from 30 to 60 each night, and consisted of ministers, lawyers, teachers and their wives, and young married people. The gentlemen were quite as enthusiastic as the ladies in expressing delight at Miss Corson's skilful transformations. The dishes cooked were served hot at the table, and were readily sold at a large advance on the cost of the raw material.

Professor and Mrs. Spencer and numerous friends pronounce the experiment a complete success, and have offered the hall, gas, fire, and stove for a permanent school of cookery in Washington, and they express the hope that the 40 colleges in the Business College Association will set a similar example in their respective cities, and thus help to popularize this important department of education.

LESSONS IN COOKERY IN INDIANAPOLIS, IND.

Mrs. Elizabeth Vinton Pierce, chairman of the domestic department of the Indianapolis Social Science Association, invited Miss Corson to give a course of six lessons, with a view to awakening interest in the establishment of a permanent training school for servants in Indianapolis. The lessons were begun October 6, and were largely attended, 'chiefly by ladies. During Miss Corson's stay in Indianapolis, representatives of the State Reformatory for Women and Girls, the Flower Mission, and the Indianapolis Orphan Asylum conferred with her in reference to the practicability of introducing instruction in cookery among those respectively under their charge.

APPENDIX.

The correspondence of this Office with boarding schools and orphan asylums reveals not only the necessity of instruction in cookery, but the need of supplying certain practical information at once that can be furnished at present in no form so well as by the specific suggestions of dietaries which recognize the condition with respect to age, &c., of those for whom they are designed. The following have therefore been supplied on request by Miss Juliet Corson, superintendent of the New York Cooking School:

To plan dietaries which can be applied to special uses it is necessary to study several leading points: first, the age, sex, and occupation of those for whom the dietaries are intended; second, the climate in which they live, whether warm or cold, and the location of their dwelling, whether upon a mountain or plain; third, a due variation of aliment, and that containing sufficient water and waste matter to supply the demands of the system without overtaxing the digestive organs; fourth, the selection of foods locally well known, and their provision in quantities adequate to the requirements of the consumers.

PHYSICAL TRANSITION DURING CHILDHOOD.

At the period of childhood the transformation of the nutritive elements of food into that healthy and well nourished blood which is the source of physical and mental strength goes on with greater rapidity and persistence than at any other time of life; hence the importance to children more than to grown persons of an abundant supply of wholesome food. The underfeeding of a child is equivalent to the deliberate destruction of his mental faculties as well as the ruin of his health. It is a sure means of giving him a weak mind and a defective constitution, of making him an inefficient member of society, and of sending him to an untimely grave. Facts warrant us in saying that the parent, guardian, or instructor who permits a child to suffer from innutrition is as much his destroyer as if life were ended at one blow.

ADOLESCENCE.

Especially from the age of twelve years up to eighteen, the greatest and most unremitting care is demanded, if children are to grow up into healthy and well developed men and women. This is a time of rapid growth and marked physical changes; and these conditions are attended with the exhaustion of all that reserve force which may have been accumulated during a well nourished childhood.

It often is the case at this period of life that the appetite fails perceptibly or becomes abnormal; the task of meeting such contingencies is imperatively imposed upon those having the charge of the youth of either sex. Exercise in the open air and freedom from vexations or severe study should be secured; the action of the skin and bowels should be carefully regulated, and the supply of nutritious food, espe

cially of flesh forming materials, should be ample.

The ordinary occupation at this time of life is study, and even the lighter studies are more arduous than the greatest amount of open air exercise or any manual labor which is not excessive; so that even under the most favorable physical conditions the system must be well nourished.

EFFECT OF CLIMATE AND SEASON.

In cold climates and during the winter season an abundance of heat food is required. A well housed and warmly clad person requires less food than one thinly clad and exposed to the severity of the elements. The inhabitants of hilly regions consume more heat food than those who live in the lowlands, and a greater quantity of all kinds of food. The system demands the most generous supply of food when the season is coldest, as in midwinter.

NECESSITY FOR WATER AND WASTE IN FOOD.

The important part which water holds in the nourishment of the body can readily be comprehended if we remember that it constitutes. at least two-thirds of the entire substance of the body and nine-tenths of the volume of the blood. Its office is to assist in the digestion and distribution of food elements, and to forward the elimination of the worn out particles of the body. All flesh foods contain more or less of it, and all concentrated and dried foods should be cooked with a liberal addition of water. Soups and stews, which are exceedingly wholesome and nutritious, usually contain about three-fourths of water.

In addition to water, a healthy type of food must afford considerable waste matter or innutritious particles. If food is too highly concentrated or composed entirely of nutritive elements, it cannot keep up the natural and healthy action of the digestive organs; a certain proportion of waste is indispensable.

The woody fibre of vegetables and the bran or husks of cereals are waste matter; they are not consumed in the system, but serve to render food less compact, thus facilitating its mingling with the gastric juices; and the stimulus caused by their presence in the bowels promotes the excretion of the worn out particles of the body.

Foods containing a wholesome quantity of waste matter are called relaxing foods, and include bread made from unbolted flour, rye, and corn meal, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Foods composed almost entirely of nutritious elements, such as eggs, milk, meat, and fine white flour, are constipating in their effect upon the system.