In conclusion, the author desires to state that no recipe has been admitted to this work which has not been thoroughly tested by repeated trials, by far the larger share of such being original, either in the combination of the materials used, the method employed, or both materials and method.  Care has been taken not to cumber the work with useless and indifferent recipes.  It is believed that every recipe will be found valuable, and that the variety offered is sufficiently ample, so that under the most differing circumstances, all may be well served.

We trust therefore that those who undertake to use the work as a guide in their culinary practice, will not consider any given recipe a failure because success does not attend their first efforts.  Perseverance and a careful study of the directions given, will assuredly bring success to all who possess the natural or acquired qualities essential for the practice of that most useful of the arts,—­“Healthful Cookery.”

ELLA E. KELLOGG.

Battle Creek, April 20, 1892.

Foods

The purposes of food are to promote growth, to supply force and heat, and to furnish material to repair the waste which is constantly taking place in the body.  Every breath, every thought, every motion, wears out some portion of the delicate and wonderful house in which we live.  Various vital processes remove these worn and useless particles; and to keep the body in health, their loss must be made good by constantly renewed supplies of material properly adapted to replenish the worn and impaired tissues.  This renovating material must be supplied through the medium of food and drink, and the best food is that by which the desired end may be most readily and perfectly attained.  The great diversity in character of the several tissues of the body, makes it necessary that food should contain a variety of elements, in order that each part may be properly nourished and replenished.

THE FOOD ELEMENTS.—­The various elements found in food are the following:  Starch, sugar, fats, albumen, mineral substances, indigestible substances.

The digestible food elements are often grouped, according to their chemical composition, into three classes; vis., carbonaceous, nitrogenous, and inorganic.  The carbonaceous class includes starch, sugar, and fats; the nitrogenous, all albuminous elements; and the inorganic comprises the mineral elements.

Starch is only found in vegetable foods; all grains, most vegetables, and some fruits, contain starch in abundance.  Several kinds of sugar are made in nature’s laboratory; cane, grape, fruit, and milk sugar.  The first is obtained from the sugar-cane, the sap of maple trees, and from the beet root.  Grape and fruit sugars are found in most fruits and in honey.  Milk sugar is one of the constituents of milk.  Glucose, an artificial sugar resembling grape sugar,