construction and decoration of the house, ignorance, masquerading as instinct, quite as often prevails. It is true we have houses in which we live, many of them expensive and artistic, yet as a rule little or no attention is paid in their construction to the specific use each of the several parts is to serve. Libraries are built with little or no regard to the place to be occupied in them by book-shelves, desk, or library table, and no attention is paid to the question of the best methods of providing them with natural and artificial light. Drawing-rooms and parlors are built without a place for a piano, dining-rooms without regard to the position of a sideboard, butlers’ pantries without an entrance to the kitchen, kitchens with absolutely no regard to the conveniences of the work to be carried on there, and bedrooms with no normal place for a bed, bureau, or dressing-table. Something has of late been done in deference to public sentiment towards applying the principles of sanitation to the construction of public and private buildings, yet much still remains to be done, both in the investigation of the principles and in their application. Many of our private homes are pleasing to the eye, yet if we accept that definition of art which considers that it is its highest province to serve best the useful, many of the so-called artistic homes must be otherwise classed. Before improvement can be looked for in any of these directions, the position must be abandoned that the household, or any single part of it, can be managed by instinct.