Domestic Economy for Girls. Edited by the Rev. E. T.
Stevens, M.A. Book L Food and Clothing. Book IL Furniture and Appliances of the House. (Longmana, Green, and Co.)—These books have been compiled to most the requirements of the new Code, and adapted to the various standards which the older girls take. Those who go conscientiously through them, and remember one-half of what they have learnt, will know more about successful domestic management than many mis- tresses of establishments, who have often had to learn what they know by disagreeable experience. The articles are written by various writers, and though unequal in merit, and labouring from a defect which little more careful editing might have removed—that of repetition—are exceedingly well done. We are twice told how to make bread and that new bread is indigestible, and twice bow to make the kitchen fire, in almost the same words ; we cannot see the propriety of an article on yeast and baking-powder in Part IL, which certainly ought to appear in Part I. Again, in one place we are told that we must carefully close our bedrooms from the night air, in another that the windows should be left open an inch top and bottom. However indisposed we are to find fault, where there is so much to praise, the value of Part L would be much enhanced, if an article were to be added on cooking meat, and the superiority of roasting before the fire insisted on, to that wasteful expenditure of Nature's good things,— cooking in the oven, whereby all the delicate estuazome of the juices is wasted. For the rest, we must congratulate the editor on having pro- duced a work which will teach no false views through a want of scientific knowledge, in which everything is reduced to a rational prin- ciple, whieh is always interesting, even in details, and which teems with information regarding almost everything belonging to a house. The idea of introducing a few practical hints on nursing the sick and some simple recipes for the ordinary ailments of the body is an excel- lent one. We hope its use will not be confined to elementary achoole, but that it will find its way into those seminaries where" the accom- plishments " form the most important parts of the curriculum, even if dt drives some of them out. They are also about the best books 01* could give to a young servant.
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