Health Lectures for the People. (Macniven and Wallace.)—Uere we have
ten lectures which wore delivered in Edinburgh in the winter before last, and are now published in this convenient form. Whore all is good, it is difficult to indicate a preference; but the two lectures addressed to women, the first dealing with the general subject of their health and occupations, the second discussing the "roaring and train- ing of the infant and child," are especially valuable. The ignorance of many women, oven after they have had the experience of maternity, is quite astonishing. To mention one matter only, who Can estimate how many lives arc lost by giving farinaceous food to very young children P Nothing but milk for tho first seven months, is Mr. Underhill's rule. Professor Fraser lectures on a subject which is never likely to become exhausted,—" The Use and Abuse of Alcoholic Stimulants and Tobacco." He sums up somewhat against alcohol. It helps out an insufficient dietary, and it assists the digestion. So much he allows, but he evidently thinks that a healthy person is butter without It. Unfortunately, many persons are not healthy, that is, they live under conditions which do not shorten life, but which seriously interfere with its happiness. To these alcohol is probably almost a necessity. Tobacco is treated more favourably. Brain- work is rendered easier by it ; it oven helps digestion and assists in the nutrition of the body. The lecture on "Food and Drink," by J. A. Russell, M.D., is full of interest. Digestion has certainly many vagaries. The list of articles in the order of their digestibility is not a little surprising. Dr. Russell tells us a curious fact about alcoholic drinks. In an insurance company the expected amount of death (2,846) was nearly realised ; but of the teetotalers (for the two classes were kept distinct in the calculation), the proportion of deaths was 28-5 per cent. under the expectation. The lecturer thinks that this indicates the fact that strong men only take to teetotalism, rather than that the practice makes so vast a difference. Bat take it as we will, the fact is very significant.
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