“The physical satisfactions of life, the joys of mental development, the inspiration of soul, the sense of growth, of expansion, and of largest happiness, the self-satisfaction of greatest usefulness, and the glorifying results of this usefulness, come in largest measure only to the person whose nutriment is proper in quantity, quality, and form and is taken properly, as to time, mastication, swallowing, and digestion, with sufficient exercise to give the body activity to convert it into use. This enjoyment of vibrant life is far beyond the joys of the intemperate or the æsthetic.” That ones energies of thought may not be constantly engaged in deciding what is best, it is important that proper _habits_ be formed. Habit calls for no conscious energy. Scientific research along the lines of electricity, psychology, metaphysics, medicine, and art has been tenaciously pursued for centuries; yet scientific study of the natural means of keeping the body in health, that the individual may be in physical, mental, and moral condition to enjoy and to profit by researches made in other lines, has been neglected. The result is, that man does not enjoy life to the full, nor make his physical nor mental efforts yield the best returns. It is necessary to know the comparative values of foods as nutrient agents, in order to maintain our bodies in health and strength, and with economy of digestive effort, as well as efficiency. The entire body,—bone, muscle, blood, brain, nerve, heat and energy,—is formed from the food and drink taken into the stomach and from the oxygen breathed into the lungs; the mental and physical activity also depends upon the food. There is no study, therefore, more important than that of bodily nutrition and the preparation of food and drink in right proportions to yield the best returns under varying conditions,—age, employment, health, and sickness. Nutrition is a broad subject. It means not only that the foods be supplied which contain elements required to rebuild body substance and to create heat and energy, but it embraces, also, the ability of the body to appropriate the foods to its needs. The study of nutrition in its full sense, therefore, must embrace foods, anatomy and physiology (particularly of the digestive system), and chemistry, in order to know the changes foods must undergo in being converted into tissue, heat and energy[1]. This study, reduced to a science, is known as Dietetics. There is no more important study for public schools, or for woman’s clubs. Nutrition must be solved largely through chemistry. The health and efficiency of the individual and of the Nation depend upon careful study of the chemical components of foods and the control of the foods placed upon the market. The “pound of cure” in the study of materia medica has been given much thought,—the “ounce of prevention,” little.