Health Lectures for the People. Second Series. (Ifacuiven and Wallace,
Edinburgh.)—It is satisfactory to learn from the preface to this admirable set of eight lectures that each of them was listened to, with appreciative attention, by two thousand persons, largely re- cruited from the artisan class. The objects of the Edinburgh Health Society, under the auspices of which these lectures wore delivered, are of a most praiseworthy kind, namely, to promote, by all means in its power, attention to personal and domestic cleanliness, to comfort, self-denial, temperance, and the laws of health generally. Lectures form but a part of the scheme, yet they serve, especially at the out- set, to stimulate attention, as well as to afford instruction. The lecturers have given their services free, while the cost of hire of the lecture hall and the expenses of printing and advertising have been defrayed by very small subscriptions from the 207 members of the "Health Society." The Committee aims at doing much more work and more varied work than they have yet attempted. For instance, besides village lectures, it would like to establish gymnasiums, and to help the constituted authorities to promote sanitary improvements. Among the eight lectures now reprinted, it is difficult to select any for especial commendation ; all present exact information and sound advioe in an attractive form. The subjects, too, are well chosen. "Modern Medicine" is discussed in connection with the wiser use of drugs, the employment of new remedies, and new instruments and methods of observation ; the value of statistics in connection with preventive medicine ancl sanitation is also dwelt upon. Dr. Cunning- ham's illustrated lecture on the human body is a remarkable instance of successful condensation. But it is more than this, for it is full of excellent advice on many points of daily life, as in the matter of boots. Look at figures six to thirteen, and go on admiring the fashionable boot, and fashionable foot, too, if you can ! Parasites, the brain audits func- tions, the skin and its management, the digestion of food, small-pox and vaccination, and last, but not least in importance,—a cold, what it means, its possible consequences, and how it is to be avoided ; these are the subjects which are treated of in this most useful little book. It is greatly to be wished that the lessons which these pages teach were widely learnt and carried out, in general practice.
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