of
the Indian corn. The starch is suspended in water, the whole placed
into large steam tanks together with some hydrochloric acid, the steam
is turned on to these tanks and the whole brought up to a heavy
pressure. By this means the starch is partially converted into dextrose,
a sugar, and dextrin, a gum. When the conversion has reached the proper
point the pressure is removed, the hot liquid is neutralized with sodium
carbonate, filtered and evaporated to a thick liquid. The resulting
compound contains about 35 per cent. dextrose, about 45 per cent.
dextrin, a small percentage of ash and the rest water.

A word of caution should be given concerning the time of eating sugar.
Obviously if candy is consumed before meals it will destroy the appetite
and interfere seriously with the meal. Obviously, also, it is unwise to
eat heavily of candy before retiring. Notwithstanding her enthusiasm for
vegetable candies the writer feels these cautions should be just as much
observed with vegetable candy as with any other.

The whole question of the amount and form of sugar to be given to
children, is one of utmost importance. Children lose more heat from the
skin for every pound of body weight than do the adults, and because of
this fact, require proportionately more heat. This heat can come only
from food and sugar is the food which produces this heat most directly
and most cheaply. This need for a heat producing food, it could be
urged, could be readily met by the use of fat. The difficulty is that
fat, and particularly fat meat, is generally disliked by the child.
Because of this distaste, his desire for all sorts of sweet things has
undoubtedly a physiological basis. It is necessary, however, to observe
very carefully the digestibility of sugar and sweetened foods in order
to decide to what extent sugar is to replace starch in the dietary. The
effect of sugar upon the appetite for other foods must be given
particular care. Mrs. Mary Hinman Abel, president of the American Home
Economics Association, says that, until a child's stomach is capable of
digesting starch, the needed carbohydrate is furnished in the sugar of
milk. The child a year old who drinks two quarts of milk per day takes
in this way about three ounces of sugar. "As the stomach becomes able
to digest starch," Mrs. Abel continues, "the child is less and less
dependent on the sugar of milk, replacing it with the carbohydrates of
vegetable origin, while the proteids