Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1895-03-23
HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE.
RELATION or THE HIGHER EDUCA-
TON OF WOMEN TO THE HOME.

How the Subject of Cleanliness In the Form
of Sanitation Is Dealt with by the wom-
an who Has studied Neutrality-suspicious.
and Food.
When it frst dawned upon few pro-
gressive spirits that woman was worth
educating, some enemy OF the scheme hit
upon clever ruse for enlisting all man
kind against it. He insinuated that if
woman learned the sciences she might for
get how to cook, and the masculine half of
humanity, face to face with the horrors OF
dinnerless existence, cried out with one
voice that woman must remain as she was
1t is unfortunate that in those darker
ages, when this view prevailed, no one was
found with the prophetic instinct to de-
clare that the whole hope OF domestic sci
ence lay in the possibility of training in
teligent women to take hold of it in an in
telligent way. Had this been done, com
fort loving world, anxious to live more
easily and fare more luxuriously, would
have dotted the land with cottages for
women and have secured the success of
the new institutions by compulsory at
tendance law so stringent that, evasion of
it would have been impossible. 1t was left,
however, for woman herself to demonstrate
her willingness to serve civilization on the
same old lines she has been following for
centuries, provided only that her work be
placed on the level where it belongs, and
that she be permitted to do it under the
same conditions that apply to other tasks
of equal Importance.
The rebellion of the modern woman
against domestic duties is not a repudia-
tion of the duties themselves, but protest
against the methods she is still expected to
apply to them. Above all she objects to
the illogical position of man, who lays
great stress upon the necessity of a well or
dered home, but who withholds from the
brain and hand that governs it the honor
due to skilled labor in whatever field. Is
it any wonder that woman with high
ideals of Il useful life should prefer the
study of medicine to the study of house
wifery? In the former she spends three
years in going over the condensed results of
all human endeavor in her chosen speciality;
in the other she painfully spends 20 years
in formulating from her own experience
the fundamental rules of science which
can hardly be said to be in its infancy, be
cause it is as yet unborn
There is, however, an embryonic idea that
such a science would be worth while and
III IN u FeIudIhdDle ldCJ Uudb Guc ptOple
who are fostering this notion with the
greatest enthusiasm are the college bred
women of America, That the idea has al
ready taken several practical and very use
full forms is sufficient guarantee of what
it may accomplish in time.
The two great and permanent necessities
of the home are sanitary perfection and
wholesome food. That these two simple
requirements involve nearly all the natural
sciences but astronomy is startling, but UNI
deniabe. To be sure generations of wom-
en- have kept house acceptably without any
knowledge of the wonders of the labOra-
tory, but they did it in an age densely I'M
conscious of bacteria and not yet awak-
ened to nervousness on the subject of sewer
gas. The task of keeping the race alive
and well seems to grow more and more
complex-hopelessly SO, in fact, unless the
endeavor is made on scientific principles.
Take first the subject of household SAM
tation. All housekeepers worthy the name
aspire to cleanliness without stopping to
think that it is of three sorts-traditional,
aesthetic and sanitary. 1t may be re-
marked in passing that the last of these
three is the only one that bears any init
mate relation to godliness. Traditional
cleanliness was the strong point of the old
fashioned model housekeeper She directed
her energies to ceaseless scrubbings and
scourings, but was the sworn enemy of ar
and sunshine. She rejoiced in such abomi-
nations MS feather beds, cotton stuffed Gov
erlids, allover carpets and similar homes
for enterprising disease germs, and she
cared little about the location of the well,
provided it was handy for her persistent
but misdirected cleansing operations Es-
thetc cleanliness, as still practiced in nine
houses out of ten, is even more needless of
the laws of health. 1t was in Difference to
it's demands that plumbers invented wood
cased water pipes, and furniture dealers
the folding bed and washing cabinet" All
it demands is that whatever it fancies I'M
slightly shall be covered up or put out of
the way.
Now, sanitary ceanliness-t might al
most be called real cleanliness, in distinc-
ton from these other sorts-is very diff
ferent matter 1t rests on the two great
sciences of physiology and bacterology,
and it cannot be successfully secured with
out at least rudimentary knowledge OF
the principles on which it is founded. The
old fashioned housekeeper hated dust be-
cause it looked untidy and provoked the
adverse criticism of her sex; her grand
daughter hates it because it eXcites pull
monary diseases, or Is likely to contain
stray germs inimical to health. The prac-
teal difference lies in the fact that the
scientific housewife will make war not only
against the dust in sight but against the
dust which she merely suspects of existing.
She has seen through the microscope the
secrets of air and water, and her standard
for the purity of her household surround
ings is raised by her knowledge of the in
visible dangers to health and comfort.
In the preparation of food there is even
mora need for the order and eXactnesS