We have received a number of little volumes called "Health
Primers" (Hardwicke and Bogue), which are under the editorship of Drs. J. Langdon Down, J. Mortimer-Granville, and Henry Power, and Mr. John Tweedy. The five now before us are Premature Death : its Promotion or Prevention. Alcohol : its Use and Abuse. Personal Ap- pearances in Health and Disease. The House and its Surroundings. Baths and Bathing. Happy is the man who does not need to trouble himself with literature of this kind ! This is a happiness, however, which can hardly be possible in this age, and we may therefore com- mend these little manuals to the large class who may have more or less need of them. Writers of popular books about health have a difficult task to perform. They must not be too vague to be useful,— they must not be too technical for the public. We take, for instance, the book on Premature Death. One of the causes enumerated is " heart-disease." To specify the symptoms would certainly be to do more harm than good, but to mention the antecedents of the malady is useful, for though some are not preventible, some certainly are. Good-sense characterises the series, as far as we have been able to estimate it. The manual on "Alcohol," for instance, deals with a difficult subject (for it seems to be harder to be temperate in talking of it than in using it) with commendable tact and judgment. This is the conclusion of the whole matter :—" In ordinary life, only so much alcohol as is of use to ensure mental rest and good digestion should be taken. When these are sufficient without alcohol, none should be taken." This particular volume is especially valuable ; that on Baths gives, among other things, some good hints about the foreign bathing-places. We do not know whether it is consoling or otherwise to find that the author hints his disbelief in the efficacy of "steel baths, sulphur baths, and mud baths." The House is another very valuable manual.
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