5 FEBRUARY 1876, Page 24

How to Live Long. By W. W. Hall, A.M., M.D.

(Sampson Low and Co.)—At the season when we have just been wishing our friends many happy years, a work that professes to teach us not only " how to live long," but also how to "promote the highest health," seems to come in very ap- propriately. Such a volume is before us, and we have given it the careful attention an interesting subject demands. The book certainly contains a good many truths,—trutha self-evident, truths "taught by village dames," and truths set forth elsewhere in fewer, simpler words. To these, when we arrive at the author's meaning through the intricacies of his grammar, we give a ready assent ; but there are also assertions Oslcd propositions which we venture to question, as well as paragraphs that raids 118 still, after frequent reading. We should state that the book Is made up of "short phrases, few words, and disconnected sentences.* We will give two or three examples, and then leave the reader to follow the text itself, if so disposed. To begin with paragraph 6, in which we are told that, "The safest and best remedies in the world are warmth, rest, and abstinence—the brutes employ these." Employ warmth, how? True, brutes build warm nests, sick ones refuse food, and when very ill will penally creep away to hide their misery in some quiet, if chilly corner ; but does a cat with a cold put her paws into hot water, and tie flannel round her throat ? Sentence 59 tuns thus :—"A good cleansing of the entire body with soap and warm water once a week is all the bathing the human system requires for pur- poses of health in ordinary circumstances." For six days—even six hot days—the traditional "two towels and a piece of soap" may be off duty ! Well, we must be thankful the author does not threaten any very terrible consequences to mortals who weakly indulge in tubbing more frequently, and that instead of insisting that we should habitually live in a loaded skin, he does advise a good " rub " with the "warm hand." Perhaps in a second edition he will tell us if it be well to wash the hand itself before the performance. We suppose sensible folks are only to abstain from cleansing the entire body, and that there is no serious objection to sponging the face now and then for appearance's sake. The author warns us against over-exertion of body or mind, so that we may hold ourselves excused for avoiding the labour of trying to extract more honey from many of his elaborate flowers of rhetoric.