22 AUGUST 1925, Page 23

MERE MORTALS. By C. MacLaurin, M.B.C.M., (Cape. 7s. 6d.) Da.

MAcLAunni here follows up his Post-Mortent with a second series of fascinating " medico-historical " essays, in which he considers the characters of Dr. Johnson, Henry the Eighth, Ivan the Terrible,Frederick the Great, Nietzsche, and a number of other famous historical personages, in the light of their

physical peculiarities and ailments. These studies are written with knowledge, imagination, humour, and vigour, and implicitly point some valuable if familiar morals, such as the immense importance of a syMpathetic treatment of children ditring their earliest years.