Thus, though the human constitution is still imperfectly understood,
though its intricacies and the details of environmental influences are
still mainly undefined, the women of every nation must nevertheless see
to it that progress in the administration of the home keeps pace with
modern demands for revised methods and less conservative practice, in
order to give every chance of normal health to their occupants.
It is a serious reflection upon many housekeepers that the hall-mark of
progressive civilisation, namely growth in power to organise, is
generally absent from their domestic methods. The time will come when it
will be to them a matter for the deepest searchings of heart that they
are directly and inexcusably responsible for a mass of the disharmonies
which disfigure the fugue of family life. The fact is too certain to be
denied. Homes have not developed in proportion to the opportunities
offered, and the chief opponents to progress have been their organisers.
The economic link they form between the physical economics of the
individual and the social economics of the nation has been unnoticed.
Reference to the hygienic significance of due economy of time, of
strength and of health, as well as of money, has hitherto been generally
met with incredulous smiles; and though home has been extolled as the
place for children, how scant has been the attention devoted to their
legitimate requirements, and how few demands for special training have
emanated from, or been attempted by, those who have undertaken the sole
charge of young lives during their most important and impressionable
years.
The new movement, designed to foster the science and art of right
living, cannot gain strength and influence unless it receives the
whole-hearted support of the millions of women whose lives and energies
are absorbed in the care of man's physical needs. It behoves _them_ to
recognise that intuition and tireless industry are insufficient
qualifications for their imperial service, and they must themselves
promote the substitution of systematic training for rule-of-thumb
anomalies.
This training must be varied and comprehensive. No other profession is
concerned with so many interests nor associated with more fateful
responsibilities. For those who can afford the time, it should include a
general acquaintance with the biological basis of life, and should
further direct attention to the vast mental and moral endowments which
give pre-eminence to our race. The products of literature and art and
the records of natural and moral science afford ever present evidence of
the extent of these endowments, and of the executive capacity associated
with their utilisation.
Chemistry must play a prominent part in the training, were it only for
the insight it gives into the inviolable law of cause and effect!
besides which physiologists tell us that the chief commerce of our
bodies with their environment is chemical; therefore, this subject
becomes an indispensable element in any comprehensive course of domestic
training. Without a working acquaintance with the physics of water, of
heat, or of air, a housewife is at the mercy of her architect, if not of
her plumber and her servants. In the absence of an introduction to
bacteriology she lives in constant perplexity over the vagaries of her
larder; and is at a loss to understand the sources of fermentation or
the methods of infection by the majority of known diseases. Without an
insight into economics she is helpless in the hands of the advertiser or
the vendor of patent preparations, all of whose wares are warranted to
perform impossible feats with an infinitesimal expenditure of trouble.
At their best these preparations are expensive, and at their worst they
are injurious to health.
Some personal practice of the domestic arts is also advisable even for
the wealthy; it is indeed essential to a right adjustment of the daily
duties in a home, though naturally the degree of skill acquired will
depend on the style of living. A study of hygiene in sufficient detail
is of course imperative, and while it will remove difficulties by
explaining common errors in diet, habits, and dress, it will be found
materially to lighten labour. Finally, hygiene will render extraordinary
assistance in the right rearing of children and in the general
arrangements of family life.
The objections may here be advanced that the study of these scientific
subjects is uncongenial to those whose temperaments are artistic or
literary; upon these people sanitary science has surely meagre claims,
while life is not long enough for all to pursue such exhaustive studies.
The reply to the first objection must be in the negative. There can be
no health under modern conditions of existence unless those who assume
responsibility in the affairs of men possess a scientific acquaintance
with its right regulation. The subjects just enumerated are the very
pillars which support the temple of Hygeia. But, for the encouragement
of these complainants, be it added that the temple walls demand
decoration; the shelves must be filled with wholesome mental provender;
the gifts of both artist and author are therefore contributory to
harmonious living, and an unlimited scope is offered to their
utilisation. The building which shelters a healthy family, for instance,
should be characterised not only by advances on existing provisions for
convenience but by symmetry in its parts. The test of beauty (use, ease,
and economy) can certainly not be passed by a large proportion of modern
houses, neither do they provide the space which gives to each occupant
"a chance to utilise his own gifts or to pursue his own hobby." Space
needs in its turn regulation, for the saving of steps must be considered
and compactness is essential. Decorations and furniture should also be
suitable in form and colour to their purpose, not a mere heterogeneous
confusion of inappropriate colours and articles, out of tune one with
the other.
The natural needs of normal children, too, must be more taken into
account in the future than in the past, and the conveniences offered by
scientific progress must be far more generally introduced into the most
modest homes. Here is a huge field for intelligent, artistic work; for
true beauty and real utility are near of kin.
It has been said that as in the world of life the localisation of
function made the organ subsequently to become responsible for that
function, so may the differentiation of labour develop individual
talents, just as the exercise of our vital activities has led to the
differentiation of parts in a house. Thus, as satisfaction of hunger is
a first necessity, eating made the kitchen, where means for the
gratification of this instinct were localised. By degrees the growth of
men's social and intellectual demands led to the setting apart of a
chamber for conversation; that is, the parlour. Storage of bread called
the pantry into existence; increased refinement necessitated a scullery
for the washing of cups and platters. Centuries, however, elapsed before
the enlarging personality of the individual demanded privacy for the
toilet and the right to isolate himself periodically from the bustle and
publicity of group life. The general provision of separate bedchambers
for each unit of a household is not even yet habitual, though most
desirable in the interests of health. Reparation of the omission will
mark a further phase of social evolution, and will remove one
disintegrating force now continually at work in home life. Here again
the artist will most advantageously collaborate with landlord and with
health authorities to devise means for the suitable satisfaction of this
laudable demand.
Further objections to the adoption of any comprehensive schemes for
training housewives of all ranks are found in the apparent want of time
available for the purpose and the prohibitive cost incurred if the
period of education be prolonged. The best answers to both objections
are found in the movement now active all over Europe and North America
to furnish more and fuller opportunities for this training, and to
extend, not curtail, its duration. More than this: this movement, which
generally originated in the desire to improve home life among the
poorest, has recently extended itself just as generally to institutions
for higher education, upon whose pupils and students its claims are now
recognised. There is no suggestion, for instance, in Germany or England,
Norway or the United States, of restricting the education of girls by
this movement or of prematurely enforcing upon them technical
instruction. The growth of public opinion is due rather to a belated
realisation that the end of all education is the betterment of life, and
that suggested applications to the practical concerns of daily life in
the course of a girl's general education make for the sounder
assimilation of theory by the pupil, and are thus contrived a "double
debt to pay."
The progress of preventive medicine has also introduced another
incentive to the diffusion of this training; for it affords convincing
proofs that the foundation of the national health is laid in the home.
If, however, the foundation is permitted to be imperfect the edifice
must necessarily be unstable.
Among other influences prejudicial to family life, the force of
which was for a long time unsuspected, mention must be made of modern
industrialism, the reopening of professional life to women, with its
associated financial independence and the increasing seductions of
society. For a century past the tendency has been to discredit
housekeeping as an unsystematised occupation, which has emphasised
the common and sometimes humiliating financial dependence of its
representatives. The first nation to perceive the importance of
stemming this dangerous tide was the United States, where conclusive
demonstrations are now offered of the fact that intelligent housekeeping
calls for a high degree of capacity, and that its problems demand the
resources of a university for their solution. By the recognition of
housecraft as a profession, American colleges accomplished even more
than at first they anticipated. A satisfactory proportion of their
students return to home life convinced of its scope and importance, and
satisfied to perform the duties which there present themselves, instead
of seeking outside occupations and divorcing themselves from family
interests. The King's College Course for graduate students in Home
Science and Household Economics bids fair to exercise an influence of
as satisfactory, though naturally of a slightly variant, character.