The House of Life. By Mrs. F. Fenwick Miller, (Chatto
and Windus.)—We have nothing but praise for this admirable little work, and heartily wish it may be studied in every home in Great Britain.. Much of the misery resulting from disease in our upper and middle- classes is due, not to wilful opposition to the laws of health, but to ignorance of the constitution of the human body, and consequent violation of the first principles of hygiene. In this age of over- praised scientific education, surely one of the foremost branches of science necessary to be studied for general usefulness and interest is that of human physiology, the most elementary facts of which are unknown to the majority of our countrymen. Could any credit for ordinary wisdom be given to a person who would entrust some deli- cate and valuable piece of mechanism to the management of a mechanic wholly ignorant of its construction and working ? And this we do continually. Mrs. Miller's accurate technical knowledge, acquired under distinguished teachers, and her experience as a lecturer, have contributed much to the success of the book. It is exact without dullness, technical without pedantry, conveying a large amount of information in simple and unaffected language, interesting as well as instructive, and teeming with easily-remem- bered aphorisms on the preservation of health. It attacks the vicious customs of female attire, and the methods which the vanity of the author's sex have suggested for the improvement of personal charms ; nor does. it spare the sterner sex in their use of alcohol, or their- moderate gluttony in dining. The idea of treating together as complements one of the other, the two subjects, physiology and hygiene, is a very happy one, and well worked out.
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