In a dietary study of the following tables, the question should be to provide the largest quantity of nutriment at the lowest cost, with due attention to palatability and variety. In the selection of meats, for instances, while beefsteak may cost twice as much as beef stew, it must be borne in mind that beefsteak contains very little waste, and it contains a large proportion of albuminoids, or the tissue building proteins, while, in the beef stew, the bones and the connective tissue predominate; the proteins yielded from the beef stew are a large proportion gelatinoids and extractives,—not the tissue building albuminoids. This would not hold in comparing the cheaper and the more expensive cuts in the same kind of beefsteak; the cheaper cuts often yield quite as much nutriment as the more expensive ones. Round steak is just as nourishing as porter-house and much cheaper. Much is said about the bacteria present in the atmosphere, the microbes in the food, etc., that one is puzzled to know, not only what to eat, but how to breathe, and, in fact, which way to turn to avoid them; but microbes and bacteria have been present in the atmosphere and in matter everywhere since time began. They are a part of the natural surroundings, and the body, if kept in strong vitality, has sufficient resistive power to enable one to live unharmed by them. The danger lies in allowing the system to run down and the vital force to ebb, so that the body becomes an easy prey to them. * * * * * [Sidenote: Habit and Regularity of Eating.] There is no doubt but that the _habit_ of eating governs one’s convictions of what the system requires. One is inclined to think that a desire for a food is a requirement of Nature; yet it may simply be the continuance of a habit. The vital organs form habits just as one forms a habit of walking, sitting or of carrying the head or the hands, and habit re-asserts itself. If a mother feeds her babe every three hours the child will usually wake and call for food about this period. If she has formed the habit of nursing the child every two hours, it will call for food in about two hours, even though all symptoms indicate that the child is over fed. It is important that both child and adult establish regular and hygienic habits because the digestive juices secrete themselves at the regular periods established. _A right habit is as easily formed, and as difficult to change, as a wrong one._ If one forms the habit of eating a certain amount of food, the stomach calls for about the same amount, and when one first begins to change the quantity it protests, whether the change be to eat more or less. Few people form the habit of drinking sufficient water,—particularly if they have been taught that water at meals is injurious. In this busy life, few remember to stop work and drink water between meals, and if not consumed at the meal time the system suffers. Many people look “dried up.”