Always have a supply of water in covered pitcher or water bottle, with clean glasses at hand, where it may be taken freely when wanted. Remember that the individual cup or glass is an absolute necessity. The dipper or glass in common must not be countenanced. In a large family of many children it would save labor to use paper cups between meals. Water should be swallowed slowly, and ice-cold water should not be taken when one is overheated. When one is overthirsty, control must be exercised in regard to quantity and rapidity of drinking. =Water in cooking.=——Water is necessary to the softening of fiber, and the cooking of starch. It acts as a solvent for sugar and salt and for gelatin, and is the basis of meat soups, certain substances in the meat dissolving in the water. The flavors of tea and coffee are extracted by water. As a medium in cooking it supplies heat in the steaming, boiling, and stewing processes, and in the form of melting ice with salt it acts as a freezing medium. It is not necessary to lift the cover of a kettle to see if the water boils, if one is familiar with the action of water nearing and at the boiling point. A simple experiment with the boiling of water in a Florence flask is always interesting, and from it one gains practical knowledge. _Experiments with the boiling temperature of water._ _A._ _Apparatus_: A ring stand, a Florence flask, a square of wire net, a chemical thermometer, a Bunsen burner. _Method_: Place the Florence flask, half full of water, on the square of wire net upon the large ring of the ring stand over the Bunsen burner. Put the chemical thermometer in the Florence flask, clamping it in such a way that the bulb is covered by the water and yet does not touch the bottom of the flask. Make record in the notebook as follows: (1) The temperature when the first small bubbles appear on the side of the flask. (2) Temperature when the first large bubbles appear on the bottom. (3) Temperature when many bubbles rise rapidly to the top. (4) Point at which temperature ceases to rise. (5) Temperature when vapor first appears at the mouth of the flask. (6) What differences are apparent in the amount and motion of the vapor before and after boiling? (7) Lift the thermometer above the water and note the temperature just above the surface, when the water is rapidly boiling. The small bubbles are bubbles of air. The large are bubbles of steam. A complete study of the boiling process should be made in the Physics class. The boiling point is the point at which water becomes steam, and also the point at which steam condenses again to water. The temperature of boiling water and steam are the same. Under pressure steam may be heated to a higher temperature. _B._ Boil water in a small saucepan closely covered. (1) Note the _sounds_ of the water just before boiling, and the change in sound as the boiling begins.