CRITICAL NOTICES OP NEW PUBLICATIONS. 337 



"Eels appear to be slow of growth, not attaining greater length than 

 twelve inches during the first year, and do not mature roe till the second or 

 third year. The sharp-nosed species, however, acquires a large size. I saw 

 at Cambridge the preserved skins of two which weighed together fifty 

 pounds ; the heaviest twenty-seven pounds, the second twenty-three pounds. 

 They were taken on draining a fen-dyke at Wisbeach." 



The Physiology of Digestion^ considered with relation to the Prin- 

 ciples of Dietetics. By Andrew Combe, M.D., F.R.C.P.E., and 

 Physician in Ordinary to the King and Queen of the Belgians. 

 8vo. Edinburgh and London. 1836. pp. xxij. and 332. 



Dr. Combe's present volume is essentially a continuation of his 

 excellent work. The Principles of Physiology applied to the Preser- 

 vation of Health, and to the Improvement of Physical and Mental 

 Education. His object is the same in both the treatises — namely, 

 to lay before the public a plain and intelligible description of the 

 structure and uses of the more important organs of the human body, 

 and to shew how information of this kind may be usefully applied 

 in practical life. His reasons for dedicating a whole volume to the 

 consideration of subjects relating chiefly to the principles of dietetics 

 and the function of digestion, are manifest and conclusive. The 

 more, he says, we reflect on the real complication of this func- 

 tion — the extensive influence which it exercises, at every period of 

 life, over the whole bodily organization — the degree to which its 

 morbid derangements undermine health, happiness, and social use- 

 fulness, and especially the share which they have in the production 

 of scrofulous and consumptive, as well as of nervous and mental, 

 affections, — we shall become more and more convinced of the deep 

 practical interest which attaches to a minute acquaintance with the 

 laws by which it is regulated. In infancy, errors of diet, and de- 

 rangement of the digestive organs, are admitted to be the principal 

 causes of the striking mortality which occurs in that period of life : 

 in youth and maturity, he adds, the same influence is recognized, 

 not only in the numerous forms of disease directly traceable to that 

 origin, but also in the universal practice of referring every obscure 

 or anomalous disorder to derangement of the stomach or bowels. 

 Hence, too, he concludes, the interest which has always been felt 

 by the public in the perusal of books on dietetics and indigestion ; 

 and hence, also, the prevalent custom of using purgations as reme- 

 dies for every disorder, very often with good, but not unfrequently 

 with most injurious, effects. In a general way, he observes farther, 

 we all acknowledge that diet is a powerful agent in modifying the 

 animal economy ; yet, from our conduct, it might justly be inferred 

 that we either regarded it as totally devoid of influence, or remain- 

 ed in utter ignorance of its mode of operation ; being left to the 

 guidance of chance alone, or of notions picked up at random, often 

 at variance with reason, and, it may be, in contradiction with our 

 own daily experience. It is, indeed, from their being left in this 

 way, without any guiding principle to direct their experience, and 



VOL. IV. — NO. XVI. 2a 



