Fashion Notes.

The wee child in the illustration is dressed in a party frock of handkerchief linen in a soft pastel shade. Smocking trims the neck in front and back, from which hang gathered rows of pleats. The frock is fastened by buttons on each shoulder, allowing room for the head to pass through the very high neck.

Milk and Sunlight in an Office.

Girl members of the “New Health” Society's staff were made the subjects of a test to ascertain the results of a course of irradiation with artificial sunlight and the inclusion of a regular addition of milk to the daily diet. This was conducted during the spring, a time when the girls would be likely to benefit from such an aid to the restoration of vitality lost during the winter; and such an assumption was endorsed by the success of the experiment.

Each individual was given daily a pint of pasteurised milk, supplied gratis by a well-known dairy company, and exposure to a mercury lamp three times a week. At the end of the period they all testified to increased well-being and vitality, and the report of the medical expert showed in each case increased chest expansion, while in five out of seven cases weight increased, especially those who had been distinctly below their best weight.

This experiment should be of the greatest interest to all concerned in the welfare of office workers, proving, as it does, the improvement in physique, and consequently, working efficiency, to be gained from either an increased milk consumption or the use of artificial sunlight in the winter months, or, better still, both together.

Bran Cakes.

One egg, 1 egg yolk, 4 ozs. buttermilk (a short ½ gill), ½ teaspoonful soda, ¼ teaspoonful salt, 4 ozs. washed bran, 1 ½ ozs, butter. Grease six deep patty tins. Beat the egg and egg yolk lightly, add the bran, salt and soda. Then add the butter-milk and lastly the melted butter. Tightly pack equal quantities into the pans, put into a hot oven of about 450 deg. F., and finish baking in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes, or until the cakes will lift out easily without sticking.

Two eggs, ¼ pint water, 1 tablespoonful olive oil, 1 teaspoonful sodium bicarbonate, ¼ teaspoonful salt, 4 ozs. washed bran. Beat the eggs lightly; add the dry ingredients, then the olive oil and water. Bake equal quantites in six deep patty pans in a moderate oven about 30 minutes, or until the cakes will lift out easily without sticking.

The Salad.

Two large potatoes passed through kitchen sieve,
Unwonted softness to the salad give,
Of mordant mustard add a single spoon;
Distrust the condiment, which bites too soon.
But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault
To add a double quantity of salt.
Three times the spoon with Oil of Lucca crown,
And once with vinegar procured from town—
True flavour needs it, and your poet begs
The pounded yellow of two hard-boiled eggs.
Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, scarce suspected, animate the whole.
And, lastly, on the flavoured compound toss
One magic spoonful of anchovy sauce.
Then, though green turtle fails, though venison's tough,
Though ham and turkey are not boiled enough,
Serenely full, the epicure may say—
“Fate cannot harm me—I have dined to-day!”

—Sydney Smith.