There is plenty of poultry in the market to-day,—chickens, ducks and pigeons, all alive, and dealers all anxious to sell. If we buy a chicken, we should get it home as carefully as we can, and it should be allowed to rest and get over its fright before it is killed. Then it should be killed as quietly and quickly as possible, as otherwise the meat will be feverish and bad for food. It should be killed some hours before it is needed for food, so that the flesh may cool. To kill it just before cooking, as is almost always done in this country, is a very bad custom, as flesh so killed is not wholesome. Here are the fish stalls; and here are the fish, most of them alive and flopping about. Fish caught in the river should not be bought unless they are alive; fresh-water fish spoil so quickly that unless alive when bought, they are not likely to be fit for food. Deep-sea fish may be bought dead, and are safe to eat if the gills are bright red and the scales clean and shiny. If the gills look dull and bluish, we should never think of buying the fish; for it has been out of the water too long. Crabs and other shellfish should always be bought alive, unless they are already cooked and frozen, as we see them in the cold storage house. Then they must be kept on ice until they are made ready for the table. But under the very best circumstances shellfish should be sparingly used in this country, as they are the cause of much trouble of the digestion. We will buy some rice to-day, but we must look at it carefully first. Good rice is clean and white. It is free from mold, and there should be no musty smell about it. If it has any such smell, we will not buy it, for it is unfit for food. It ought not to be fed, even to the chickens. Moldy and dirty rice is a common cause of the disease called _beri-beri_, which is so often fatal in tropical countries. Many people are not prudent about selecting and cooking their rice. They are careless and often buy musty rice, nor do they cook it long enough. They eat it half cooked, and many people like it a little burned. Prepared this way the rice is hard to digest, and is irritating to the system and to the food canal. A grown man who is well and strong needs a certain amount of food every day, to keep him in health. The body requires water, fat, sugar, and albumen, and some mineral salts. Albumen is a substance rich in food for the body, of which it makes up a large part. The white of egg is almost pure albumen, and therefore eggs are very good for food. Milk, which is the only food very young babies should have, contains all the things which the body needs, and in just the right quantities. It has water, sugar, fat, albumen, and some mineral matter. Meat has albumen and fat, but no sugar, and fish is similar to meat in this respect.