6 94 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



hopes raised by Adami's first volume which brings into such definite relief the 

 imperfections of the 'present book. There is, in the text, much that is good. 

 The chapters on the organs of circulation and respiration are distinctly better than 

 most of the book, and the section on the kidney is meritorious if cursory. It is 

 better not to enter upon a speculative correlation of relative virtue with individual 

 authorship, though there is a considerable temptation — and in places not much 

 difficulty — to identify the spirit and manner of the General Pathology. As a whole 

 the text is somewhat above, and the illustrations much below, the average found 

 in other books which cover approximately the same ground. The book is too big 

 and too expensive to be generally adopted by students. 



A. E. Boycott. 



Children in Health and Disease : A Study of Child-Life. By David Forsyth, 

 M.D., D.Sc, Physician to the Evelina Hospital for Sick Children, etc. 

 [Pp. xix + 362.] (London : John Murray, 1909. Price lay. net.). 



THIS book, while written by a medical man as a result of his professional experience 

 and for members of his own profession, is one which should be of equal value to the 

 educationalist and may be read with interest and profit by the intelligent mother 

 or nurse. It deals in the first place with the physiology of child-life, which the 

 author very rightly regards as commencing at the time of conception, and sub- 

 divides into antenatal, natal and postnatal physiology. With reference to growth 

 in weight he lays stress on the fact that the percentage increase is a more 

 instructive indication of a child's progress than is the absolute increase, and con- 

 siders that the amount of food required by an infant should be estimated by the 

 weight of the child and not by its age, as is the usual method. Put more exactly, 

 as 80 per cent, of the total energy derived from food is converted into heat, and 

 the loss of heat depends upon the extent of the body surface, the calorific value of 

 the food given must bear a definite relationship to the body surface. From the 

 facts that a definite ratio exists between body weight and surface area and that the 

 calorific value of milk is readily ascertained from its composition, it can easily 

 be calculated what quantity of milk is needed by an infant of given weight. A 

 short table is given constructed on the above lines, which should prove very simple 

 and satisfactory in practice. 



As regards growth in individual organs we may notice that although an infant's 

 brain nearly doubles in weight during the first six months after birth, the frontal 

 lobes, the site of the intellectual centres, do not begin to attain the prominence 

 that is a feature of the adult brain, until the sixth year. When that fact is 

 appreciated we shall surely have an end of the cramming of little children so 

 common in our elementary schools, where a class of six-year-olds was recently 

 asked by an inspector " How many twopenny-halfpenny toys could I get for 

 forty pence ? " 



After a couple of very interesting chapters on the psychology of childhood, the 

 author proceeds to discuss school life from both medical and educational points of 

 view. Especially suggestive are his remarks on the hygienic conditions of 

 boarding-schools and the need of medical inspection among the children of the 

 upper classes : if, as he says, it is the usual practice to send the younger boys to 

 bed not earlier than ten o'clock it is no wonder that nervous troubles are common. 

 A useful chapter is devoted to Idiotic and Feebleminded Children, and the 

 remainder of the book is occupied by the consideration, on very broad lines, of the 

 important subject of disease in childhood. The section dealing with the Examina- 



