If they have any “acquired traits,” you may be sure the circulation of air in your refrigerator is bad or else there are seams or crazes in the tile, holding odors in their grip. Tiles and other beautiful interiors have in many instances been discarded by many makers because of their brittleness or pertinacious grip on odors--which, in the form of gases, poison foods and hence the family! Opal glass has been dropped because of its fragility in lighter weights. There are, however, some manufacturers who use tile with excellent result. Another important feature is the drain pipe, more important almost than the exhaust on the motor. If this pipe is not constructed solely to carry off odors and waste materials from the cleanest ice and not to import insects, gases and warm air from the sewage of the town, it will collect a very tidy packet of typhoid, diphtheria or any home-seeking germs. This drain ought therefore to have a water-sealed trap in it, it should be smooth, of hard, well-finished metal and be so simply cleaned that the kitchen maid, or whoever is delegated to perform the laving of this important part of the household, should not look forward to the performance with horror, but with a sense of ease. There isn’t a doubt that a faulty drain in the refrigerator has caused more typhoid than anything else. Think what it means then to be a good kitchen engineer--what service you can render your family! Few home-keepers realize the necessity of understanding the underlying principles of air circulation, sanitation and germination but what a lot of misery could be avoided if the chatelaine or even the wife-cook had a little technical knowledge. How this would dignify the science of the home. And yet how lightly is the function of home-keeper assumed and how many brainy women look down upon it! HOW TO USE A REFRIGERATOR But if you have everything to assure perfection in refrigeration and know not how to use it, it is as if you had none at all. Note this amendment to the nine points: 1. Keep your ice chamber _full_, even after Dry Laws. It saves ice and preserves your food. The circulating air will only go “over the top” as far as the bulk of ice drives it. 2. _Never put any food in the ice compartment._ It must play an infinite solitaire. 3. Keep the doors shut, and open them as little as possible. 4. If the ice gives out, take out all the material and rinse out the refrigerator. Refill it with ice and keep the door shut at least six hours. And remember sufficiency of ice insures efficiency of refrigeration and efficiency of refrigeration means a sufficiency in expenditure--for a refrigerator. Water coils can be put in some ice chambers which connect directly with the water supply. In this way the water can be kept continuously cool for drinking under all conditions of outside temperature. The outside of the ice box should be of hard wood or porcelain, the hardware of the best, including lever door handles.