LITERARY NOTICES. 



127 



are described in like manner with the cook- 

 ing of meat. Soups, being among the most 

 economical of dishes, receive a large share 

 of attention. The author advises the house- 

 wife to make use of the full range of season- 

 ings at her command, so as to increase the 

 number of stimulating flavors that can be 

 given to the food of the family. In conclu- 

 sion, there are given twelve bills of fare for 

 a family of six, costing on the average sev- 

 enty-eight cents a day, twelve costing one 

 dollar and twenty-six cents, and twelve din- 

 ners to be taken by a man to his work and 

 eaten mostly cold. Other topics, namely, 

 drinks at meals, cookery for the sick, and 

 the buying of meat, are treated, and the au- 

 thor has deemed a few words on the arrange- 

 ment of the kitchen not out of place. Mrs. 

 Abel's mode of presenting her subject is 

 thoroughly scientific, and at the same time is 

 attractive and encouraging, and not above 

 the comprehension of an ordinarily intelli- 

 gent woman, if she is not afraid of columns 

 of percentages, and such words as " proteid " 

 and " carbohydrate." The book is sold for a 

 nominal price, in order that the information 

 it contains may be widely diffused. It is pub- 

 lished in both paper and cloth covers, and 

 in the German as well as the English lan- 

 guage, and may be obtained by addressing 

 Essay Department, American Public Health 

 Association, P. 0. Drawer 289, Rochester, 

 N. Y. 



A Treatise on Massage, Theoretical and 

 Practical. By Douglas Graham, M. D. 

 Second edition, revised and enlarged. 

 New York : J. H. Vail & Co. Pp. 342. 

 Price, $2.75. 



The history, mode of application, and ef- 

 fects of massage, indications and contra-in- 

 dications, are also included in the title of 

 this book. The author is known to the read- 

 ers of the Monthly from his having published 

 in it, in October, 1882, a description of Gen- 

 eral Massage, which was one of the fullest 

 and most intelligible and satisfactory popu- 

 lar accounts of the subject that had till then 

 been given, and which we believe did much 

 to bring massage into general notice. The 

 first edition of this work was published 

 a little more than two years afterward, for 

 the purpose of recalling the facts and ob- 

 servations scattered in numerous medical 

 memoirs, and uniting them with the author's 



own experience. For the present edition, 

 the work has been thoroughly revised, and 

 enlarged with numerous additions, many of 

 them confirmatory of statements previously 

 regarded as doubtful. Two new chapters 

 have been added one on local massage for 

 local neurasthenia, and the other on the 

 treatment of scoliosis by means of mass- 

 age. Much new and valuable information 

 from European doctors is introduced on the 

 uses of massage in affections of the ear, in 

 scoliosis, in affections near and into joints, 

 and in affections of the abdominal organs. 

 The summary of the history of massage, to 

 which two chapters are devoted, traces the 

 development of the process from the rub- 

 bings of the most ancient times. According 

 to Prof. Billroth, massage is as old as sur- 

 gery itself and that means as old as man- 

 kind. Rubbing is spoken of by Homer, and 

 was practiced among the Greeks and Ro- 

 mans, by people of different classes, in their 

 gymnasia and their baths, among whom it 

 seems to have been highl" appreciated by 

 men of note, eminent as physicians or phi- 

 losophers, poets or historians ; and so it has 

 come down to us not been discovered. It 

 is also familiar and efficacious among many 

 barbarous and savage peoples. In the chap- 

 ter on the mode of applying massage, the 

 point is maintained that the matter should 

 not be left to novices, to persons who " have 

 a knack " for it, or to those who take it up 

 without instruction, or with imperfect in- 

 struction, but is one in which intelligence 

 and professional skill have an important 

 place, and which doctors should not be 

 above engaging in personally. The study 

 of the physiological effects of massage is 

 declared to be commensurate with that of 

 physiology itself. It "rouses dormant capil- 

 laries, increases the area and speed of the 

 circulation, furthers absorption, and stimu- 

 lates the vaso-motor nerves. . . . Seeing that 

 more blood passes through regions massed 

 in a given time, there will be an increase in 

 the interchange between the blood and the 

 tissues, and thus the work done by the cir- 

 culation will be greater, and the share borne 

 by each quantity less." The process is then 

 shown, in particulars, to be beneficial in af- 

 fections of the nervous system. In the suc- 

 ceeding chapters its application is discussed, 

 with numerous citations of illustrative cases 



