Medical Books
Nutrition and Disease. By Edward Mellanby. (Oliver and Boyd. 8s. 6d.)
ANY people who feel sceptical as to the value of medical research should read this book. Although it is in the best sense a scientific work, few educated laymen would have difficulty in realizing the significance of the facts adduced or of the conclusions which Dr. Mellanby has drawn from them. The author, apart from his personal qualities, which are distin- guished, has one great advantage over most research workers. He is not only a laboratory man, but a clinician. During the past thirteen years he has " hadthe- opportunity, as a pro- fessor of pharmacology and a physician of a large general hospital, of making investigations .m Medical problems wider conditions which have allowed 'combined laboratory and clinical facilities," and this work shows how the two methods can react on one another to "their mutual advantage. The holding of a combined clinical. .and laboratory post has, obviously, enabled the author constantly to check his experi- mental findings by bringing them into contact with the actual problems the solution of whieli_Wris the purpose, of the experi- ments.
It is an. established feet that "nutrition has an important bearing on susceptibility to many kinds -of infection. As Dr. Mellanby points out, however, we have not until lately been able to determine the nature of Ihe'. special deficiencies in diet which are responsible for the pathological aberrations. Height and weight -riffnrd_ by no inerifissatisfactory criteria of malnutrition. Thus a welkgrown, healthy looking child, with badly formed and carious :teeth, ought to be regarded as suffering or hriVing suffered. trona Malnutrition." So, also, should a child with a 'goitre, though otherwise apparently normal ; to should 'a Knell suffering frcim anaemia. " If we take these tests as criteria, a-large part of the population of this country is suffering-from Malnutrition."' - - Many'of the conclusionsta which. Dr. Mellanb.y'.s.researches have led him are likely to have far:reaching results, biAh in curative Medicine and in PreSieritkve hygiene. ;We know a good deal about the effects-- ofn eomplete absence from the dietary of each of theknowli"vitamins– --but we know very little about the .consequences, of. a partia deficiency.of these substances. Dr. Mellanby's–Wak "has ridded much to this knowledge.
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