Now sedentary life has several main effects upon health and mood. It
tends quite definitely to lower the vigor of the entire organism.
Perhaps it is the poor ventilation, perhaps it is the lack of the
exercise necessary for good muscle tone that brings about this result.
Though the housewife may work hard her muscles need the tone of walking,
running, swimming, lifting, that our life for untold centuries before
civilization made necessary and pleasurable.

With this sedentary life comes loss of appetite or capricious appetite.
Frequently the housewife becomes a nibbler of food, she eats a bite
every now and then and never develops a real appetite. Nor is this a
female reaction to "food close-at-hand"; watch any male cook, or better
still take note of the man of the house on a Sunday. He spends a good
part of his day making raids on the ice chest, and it is a frequent
enough result to find him "logy" on Monday.

Furthermore, in the household without a servant, the housewife rarely
eats her meal in peace and comfort. She jumps up and down from each
course, and immediately after the meal she rarely relaxes or rests. The
dishes _must_ be cleared away and washed, and this keeps from her that
peace of mind so necessary for good digestion.

An increasing refinement of taste adds to these difficulties. If the
family eat in the dining room, have separate plates for each course, and
various utensils for each dish, have snowy linen instead of
oilcloth,--then there is more work, more strain, less real comfort. Much
of what we call refinement is a cruel burden and entails a grievous
waste of human energy and happiness.

An important result of the sedentary life is constipation. Woman, under