SOME SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL BOOKS.* THE place of honour may
_fairly be given to Dr. Ledingham and Dr. Arkwright. Here is a ,book well written, well thought out, complete, concise, and authoritative. That
• (1) The Carrier Problem in Infectious Diseases. By 3. C. Q. Ledingham, M.B., 'D.Sc., and T. A. Arkwright, M.D. London: Edward Arnold. [12s. 6d.]— Y2) Herbal; their Origin and Boolutien. By. Agnes Arbor. Cambridge : At the University. Press, [Ws. 6d.]—(3) The Protein Elementin Nutrition. By Major D. McCoy, M.D., B.Ch. London: Edward. Arnold. [1.0s.' 64.]—(4) Woman kr4 Wreasaaheed. By Q. W. Saleaby. .Londeni -William Heinemann. persona after recovery from typhoid, paratyphoid, diphtheria, epidemic meningitis, dysentery, or cholera may still be harbouring the germs -of -the disease, and may thus• infect their neighbours, is certain. And from this proven fact questions are' born : questions of preeatages, Measures of risk, methods of examination, supervision, isolation, -treat- ment. A new influence has come into the bard-worked lives of our medical officers of health and our superintendents of fever hospitals. Everybody ought -to know something about the carrier problem ; and in this admirable book, which is a credit to the Lister Institute, he will find everything-that he ought to know.
Equal in merit, from the book-lover's point of view, but vastly different in subject, is Mrs. Arber's history of herbals. This delightful book is a credit to Newnbam scholarship and to the Cambridge University Press. There never was a book richer 'in pleasant old-world portraits and wood-cuts; and there will never need to he another book on herbals. Mrs. Arber has made her book thoroughly beautiful ; the very initial letters of the chapters date from 1550. Among the wood-cuts' of herbs and flowers are many which show the utmost skill of design : they would serve well toward tapestries and wall-papers. Indeed, the beauty of the book -endangers the text: and reviewers who have souls above type will be so charmed with the illustrations that they will forget to read what the book says. By which forgetfulness they will miss a great wealth of scholarly, delicate, intimate writing. But one reviewer, dutifully compelling himself to keep his eyes away from the pictures, has found one slip in the text. The ,name Phytobasanos, which Fabio Colonna. (1567.1650) gaie to his work on botany, is said by Mrs. Arber to mean ," the ordeal by torture " of plants : surely it is the " touchstone," not the
torture. •
It is a pleasure to read Professor McCay's studious and thoughtful work. He sets himself to oppose the reduction of the protein content of man's diet advocated by Chittenden. He has given years of patient observation and exhaustive reading to his subject : he has especially studied the native races of India: and this monograph is of the very highest value. The illustrations are excellent. In brief, the book, is as good as good can be. His conclusion is that ." the facia, as set forth in the preceding pages, afford ample proof of the all-important influence exerted by food, and particularly protein, in deter- mining the degree of muscular development, the general physical endowment, the powers of endurance, resistance to disease, and, most important of all, the :place a tribe or race has won for itself in manliness, courage, and soldierly instincts." Then,- at the very end of the book, comes that new discovery, the latest secret of nature's chemistry of our food—the existence, in a mere trace, of wonder-working com- pounds like " vitamine " : and we are face to face with this amazing fact, that if a man, or a pigeon, is fed on milled rice, he and the pigeon alike may die of beri-beri, for mere want of something which is only one in a hundred thousand parts of the rice. L'Nothing, in man's study of his food, is more striking than this discovery of the cause of beri-beri: and the last word has not yet been said on the physiological laws of nutrition.
Next comes Dr. Saleeby's now book Woman and Womanhood. It is well written and absolutely sincere; too outspoken for the school-room, but none the worse for that. Among much else, there is some excellent advice on the proper choice of Words when one is speaking to a hazardous audience on a Sexual subject. Now and again, in the course of the book, Dr. Saleeby's pen runs away with him : but no harm comes of this elopement. It is an honest, rapid, whirling book ; it covers at full speed the old deep-trodden field of woman's place and purpose ; it is too fond of quoting Herbert Spencer, but it makes amends by equal fondness for Ruskin and the Gospels. We can hardly call it " original," but we - have no reason to think that anything original can be written by a man, at this time of day, about woman.
Dr. Elizabeth Chesser is content with a simpler book : and it is a very good one. It gives all that a woman need know for the care of her own-and her children's health: from cover to cover it contains practical, sensible facts about food and Dos.)--(s) Perfect • Health for Women and Children. By Elizabeth Sloan Chesser, M.B. London : Methuen and Co. Ds. 13d.j---(6) Adolescent Education. B Cyril Eruyn Andrews.. London: liebinan, Limited:' LlsA--(7).Scienee and the Unman Mind. By William and,Cath e whetham. London . lagruans and Co. [58.17--(8) The Student s Human Physiology. By Ernest louden: tfrge D2.3 - snirsingpbysilnl culture. Now and again it tends to edurisele of perfection—as where it recommends nine hours' sleep, and ten if you can get it : or where it says, in a phrase of Singular uneomeliness, "` Preach the gospel of chewing at every meal." But, for all that, it is an excellent book; and it deserved to be adorned with a few illustrations or diagrams. This small fault can be remedied ; for it is surely destined for more than one edition.
Adolesrent Education is concerned with one of the gravest of all themes—the bringing-up of boys and girls : and it has much to say of that form of immorality which occult in school life. The book is good, and should be read with care by paienta and teachers. It is written tempeiately and hopefully. The author is perhaps too modern for old-fashioned people ; there may be more than he thinks to be said for " dualism " in moral philosophy. But the whole book is good, strong, 60mb:the? ire work : and the " dualist" must make the best of a world which seems to have left him behind.
The Whetharns' new book, Science and the Human Mind, is far too good to be included here as one of a bundle of books. It is -a brief, vivid, crowded history of the rise of scientific thought in relation to other kingdoms of thought; its gradual deliveettnce from the conditions of dogmatic theology; its influences, reactions, and interactions—all the way from the Chaldaeans and Babylonians to Mr. Balfour, William James, and Bergson ; and we leave mankind, after all these aeons, still questioning, tendestemque mant; ripae ulterioris amore. It is a notable book, and well worthy of close study.
Finally comes a short, well-arranged manual, by Mr. Ernest Evans, for the teaching of Human Physiology in schools, as a one year's course. It is a thoroughly sound and useful guide ; and it is made of the more.use by rules for experiments, and by questions at the end of each chapter.
Previous page
