Now let us consider these dietaries and bald statements of fact in the light of experience, and learn something of how the poor live. In a thoughtful article by Mrs. S. A. Barnett (which was published first in the National Review for July, 1886, and republished in a book entitled Practicable Socialism, a series of papers by herself and her husband), the application of correct scientific principles of diet to the needs and possibilities of the poor is considered. The article should be carefully studied byall who feel themselves called upon to decidesocial questions, either theoretically or practically. Very much has been written about dietaries, and the amount of food necessary to raise so many foot-tons; in other words, to enable a navvy or docker to do his daily tasks; but no one, except Mrs. Barnett, has, so far as I know, taken the trouble to turn the percentages and quantities of carbonaceous and nitrogenous food required to maintain health, into economical dishes of potatoes and meat for a family of a working man and his wife and eight children, and to show us the cost of living to a farthing.

Assuming that, on the lowest estimates, a working man requires 16 oz. of carbonaceous and 4 oz. of nitrogenous food a day; his wife, 12 oz. of carbonaceous and 3 oz. of nitrogenous food; and his eight children an average of 8 oz. of carbonaceous and 2 oz. of nitrogenous food a day each; the total indicates that 92 oz. of carbonaceous and 23 oz. of nitrogenous food have to be daily provided. To show how this can be done with all the advantages of scientific culinary knowledge, Mrs. Barnett gives the following daily menus, which I make no excuse for quoting at length: -

Here there is a short allowance of nitrogenous food, which would be corrected by a rather larger allowance of bread. I will give another of these thoughtful daily menus: -

It will be noted that the family is strictly teetotal, and that no extras of any kind can be allowed.