weight, should he agree with a friend who told him he was starving himself? Should he agree if, instead of gaining, he lost weight? =13.= Why is half-raw or soggy bread harder to digest than the raw grain itself? Which would be thoroughly chewed and cause a great flow of saliva? =14.= Ask a fat person whether he drinks much water. A lean person. =15.= Why is one whose waist measures more than his chest a bad life insurance risk? =16.= What changes in habits tend to make a rheumatic middle-aged person more youthful? =17.= How is the ingenious “fireless cooker” constructed? =Atwater’s Experiments with Alcohol.=--A few years ago Professor Atwater proved that if alcohol is taken in small quantities, it is so completely burned in the body that not over two per cent is excreted. He inferred that it is a food, since it gives heat to the body and possibly gives energy also. His experiments did not show whether any organ was weakened or injured by its use. As alcohol is chiefly burned in the liver, it probably cannot supply energy as is the case with food burned in nerve cell and muscle cell. The heat supplied by its burning is largely lost by the rush of blood to the skin usually caused by drinking the alcohol. Dr. Beebe, unlike Professor Atwater, experimented upon persons who had never taken alcohol, and whose bodies had not had time to become trained to resist its evil effects. He found that it caused an increased excretion of nitrogen. When the body became used to it, this decreased, but the proteid excreted by the kidneys contained an abnormal amount of a harmful material called _uric acid_. Uric acid, a substance which is present in rheumatism and other diseases, is usually destroyed by the liver. As the burden of destroying the alcohol falls chiefly upon the liver, it is not surprising to find that it is so weakened and injured by alcoholic drink that it cannot fully perform its important functions. Bright’s disease and other diseases accompanied by uric acid are more frequent among persons who use alcoholic drinks. =Definition of Food.=--_A food is anything which, after being absorbed by the body, nourishes the body without injuring it._ Does alcohol or tobacco come within this definition? =Advantages of Good Cooking.=--Taste and flavor may be developed; parasites are killed; taste may be improved by combining foods; starch grains are burst and the food softened. Thus digestion is aided.