PREFACE.


An eminent authority[1] says: "Up to the age of sixteen even a lucid
statement of principles is received by all but a few pupils as dogma.
They do not and cannot in any adequate sense realize the reasoning
process by which scientific conclusions are reached. They are taught
not only facts but classifications and laws, and causes in relation to
their effect. These are not, in the majority of cases, elaborated by
the pupil. The teaching of them accordingly degenerates into a
statement of facts, and the learning of them into an act of memory."

To obviate this condition, or to at least neutralize its effects
somewhat, is one of the principal reasons for introducing Domestic
Science into the Public School curriculum; a science which relates so
closely to the daily life that it cannot be left to an act of memory;
where cause and effect are so palpable that the pupil may readily
arrive at an individual conclusion.

The aim of this text-book is to assist the pupil in acquiring a
knowledge of the fundamental principles of correct living, to
co-ordinate the regular school studies so as to make a practical use
of knowledge already acquired. Arithmetic plays an important part in
the arranging of weights and measures, in the study of the analysis
and relative value of various kinds of food, in estimating the cost of
manufactured products in proportion to their market value, in the
purchase of food material, etc. History and geography are closely