In dealing with the sick, the method of preparation and the manner of serving food assume an importance that is not sufficiently appreciated by the untrained. It is hardly possible for every hospital to have a trained chef or a diet cook. Much of the cooking must needs be done by the ordinary servants, but the hospital housekeeper should have an intelligent appreciation of the needs of her family, her influence should pervade the domestic region constantly, and her standards and methods be understood by every one who handles food for the patients. The difference between the kind of cooking needed for the sick and the well needs also to be thoroughly understood, and while in reality the housekeeper must cater to both classes, yet the sick are her especial care. The fact must be borne in mind, too, that in a hospital we are dealing with people in whom frequently the functions of the organs of digestion and assimilation are seriously disturbed and weakened. These changes are accompanied by a loss of appetite and often a disgust for food. Yet the waste of the body, because of the sickness, is increased, and special effort is needed to supply the most nutritious food with the minimum tax on digestive powers. [Sidenote: Objects of Cooking] The method of cooking, which is in reality preparing the food for digestion, thus becomes a powerful factor in dealing with diseased conditions. In most foods, and in animal foods especially, cooking develops the agreeable flavors and makes them more palatable. It also enables them to become more readily masticated and therefore more easily digested. The nutritive elements of food are extracted for assimilation by the action of the various digestive fluids of the body. In many diseases the glands that secrete these digestive fluids are weak or inert, and need stimulating, and here attractive cookery and artistic serving play an important part. When food is pleasing to the eye the nerves of sight and taste are excited. These nerves act reflexly on the nerves of the stomach, stimulating the gastric glands. Eating is, therefore, made more enjoyable, a greater flow of digestive juices is produced, and the result is better digestion, better assimilation and increased strength. [Sidenote: Classes of Diets] Four grades of diet for patients are ordinarily recognized in a hospital. Besides these we have the different grades of food, served to the different classes of employes on the working staff, making as a rule seven different classes of dietaries for the hospital housekeeper to provide each day. Usually there are dishes on the regular diet that may be used for the semi-solid or the light diets, and also for the officers’ and employees’ tables. And as a general rule there are special forms of liquid diet prepared each day, that may be added to the other dietaries, thus making it possible to cook many of the dishes in bulk, which is always the more economical way.