Cassell's Physical Educator. By Eustaee Miles. (Cassell and Co. 9s.)—Mr.
Miles appropriately quotes as the text of his introductory chapter a saying of Herbert Spencer's, "To be a good animal is the first requisite to success in life." This is the aim which he has kept before him in this volume. It is a large subject, and Mr. Miles has treated it thoroughly. It would be easy to pick out many examples of practical wisdom. How true, for instance, is this,—that exercise, which is the chief, though not by any means the only, factor in physical education, must be attractive. In some people a walk taken as a duty will actually bring on neuralgia; while the same walk with an object will improve the well-being of the body. Attractive exercise naturally suggests "games." How are we dwellers in cities to get games or their equivalents or substitutes ? Mr. Miles discusses this -question, and he goes on to give us a highly interesting chapter on "British Games and Suggested Changes." Then there are words of counsel to the fat who wish to become thin. There are chapters on Nature-cure, nerve-training, on various systems, on meats and drinks, especially stimulants, and on narcotics. Here is a startling quotation : "Put a tobacco-victim in a hot bath ; let him remain there till a free perspiration takes place; then drop a fly into the water, and the fly will instantly die." But then all smokers aro not "tobacco-victims," nor would Mr. Miles suggest that they are. He is very moderate in his state- ments, though he is doubtless generally adverse to stimulants and narcotics. The volume would be improved by an index. It has, we think, appeared in a serial form.
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