Repository: UIHistories Project: Course Catalog - 1877-1878 Version B [PAGE 49]

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College of Natural Science.

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them to bring the aids of science and culture to the all-important labors and vocations of womanhood. This School proceeds upon the assumption that the housekeeper needs education as much as the house-builder, the nurse as well as the physician, the leaders of society as-surely as the leaders of senates, the mother as much as the father, the woman as well as the man. We discard the old and absurd notion that education is a necessity to man, but only an ornament to woman. If ignorance is a weakness and a disaster in the places of business where the income is won, it is equally so in the places of living, where the income is expended. If science can aid agriculture and the mechanic arts to use more successsfully nature's forces and to increase the amount and value of their products, it can equally aid the house-keeper in the finer and more complicated use of those forces and agencies, in the home where winter is to be changed into genial summer by artificial fires, and darkness into day by costly illumination ; where the raw products of the field are to be transformed into sweet and wholesome food by a chemistry finer than that of soils, and the products .of a hundred manufactories are to be put to their final uses for the health and happiness of life. The purpose is to provide a full course of instruction in the arts of the household, and the sciences relating thereto. No industry is more important to human happiness and well-being than that which makes the home. And this industry involves principles of science, as many and as profound as those which control any other human employment.

TECHNICAL STUDIES.

Food and Dietetics.—This study extends through two terms. The first term is devoted to the consideration of the simple aliments, such as Sugar, Starch, the Albuminoids, Fats, etc. In the second term, the studies include the compound aliments : Chemical structure of the cereals, especially the Wheat; the chemistry of Bread-Making, care of Milk and Butter; the nature, uses, preservation and preparation of animal and vegetable food, for the healthful, and for the invalids; the chemistry of cooking; chemical composition, preparation and physiological effects of the beverages, such as Tea, Coffee, Chocolate, etc., and the effects of alcoholic drinks. Domestic Hygiene.—Location of Dwelling Houses, importance of Drainage, uncleanliness as a source of disease ; necessity of ventilation and sunlight; uses, construction, material and hygiene of dress; principles of nursing and care of the sick.. Household Esthetics.—Principles of taste as applied to ornamentation, furniture, wall and ceiling decoration, carpets, pottery,