March 23, 1882] 
NATURE 
479 
tion, Another cause is, probably, the closer connection 
which smell and taste have with the process of nutrition, 
and the consequent alterations which repeated impres- 
sions upon them may have upon the general well being. 
A man may pass long hours ina picture gallery or concert 
room, receiving impressions good, bad, or indifferent, 
without much effect upon digestion or circulation, but a bad 
odour would quickly excite nausea or sickness. The im- 
pressionable natures of Southern Italy object to strong 
perfumes, even though pleasant. The sense of taste dif- 
fers in one particular from the other three, viz. that while 
the agents which excite them may remain outside the body, 
the substances which excite taste are taken into the body, 
and thus have an action upon it independently of their 
mere effect upon the sense itself. In gratifying this 
sense, therefore, we have to consider not merely what 
will give the greatest pleasure at the moment, but what 
will be most satisfactory in its after results. Fortunately, 
pleasure to the palate usually aids digestion, if obtained 
in the proper way; but comparatively few people know 
the art of dining properly themselves, and still fewer know 
how to give good dinners to their friends. 
The two works before us are intended to supply this 
lacking knowledge, both by giving general rules and 
special examples. Walker’s “ Aristology” deals more 
with the general rules of dining, and especially of dining 
as a social duty, and Sir Henry Thompson more particu- 
larly with the details of food and cookery. In discussing 
food, the latter author makes some very sound remarks 
regarding the excessive amount of butcher's meat eaten 
by Englishmen, and its injurious consequences. In the 
working classes it leads to wasteful extravagance, although 
the manual labour which they have to undergo may lessen 
its deleterious effect upon their health. In the upper 
classes, where its price has but little effect upon the purse, 
its injurious action upon the body is increased by want 
of exercise, and tends, as the author truly says, to shorten 
or embitter life. The food of middle class Englishmen 
might be rendered not only much more palatable, but 
much more healthy, by the introduction of larger propor- 
tions of fish, vegetables, and farinaceous substances, as 
well as by greater variations in the modes of preparation. 
Both these subjects are well considered by Sir Henry 
Thompson. 
The question of the best combination of dishes in a 
meal, and the arrangement of the meals, next engages the 
author’s attention ; and after this he discusses the ques- 
tion of wines, coffee, water, and tobacco, gives a scheme 
for a dinner, and a number of menzs for different months 
in the year, finishing up with suggestions for the improve- 
ment of public dinners, and for the better teaching of 
cookery and supply of food throughout the kingdom. 
The contents of Sir Henry Thompson’s book thus cor- 
responds to its title, ‘‘ Food and Feeding,” and it gives 
the elements of the dinner. Walker's “Art of Dining” 
aspires to a higher gastronomic level. It is written in a 
series of most readable little essays, in which the direc- 
tions which concern the kitchen are omitted, and the 
foods are discussed as they appear upon the table. The 
key-note of the book may be found in the little sentence, 
“The chief maxim in dining with comfort is to have what 
you want when you wantit,” and in order to attain this the 
writer shows how the attendants should be ordered, and 
how the little adjuncts to the dishes should be arranged, 
so that no one shall have to wait for anything a moment 
after the desire for it has arisen. But more than this. 
It often happens that people do not know what to desire, 
and this the author tries to show them, by giving them 
illustrations of little dinners which he has had with his 
friends, and in which dishes and wines were so arranged 
in quantity and quality as to give the maximum of enjoy- 
ment. A puzzle in physics is the question whether a glass 
of water containing a cork would be heavier when the 
cork was fastened to the bottom of the glass or allowed to 
float on the water. The answer is that it would be heavier 
when the cork was at the top, because its place at the 
bottom of the glass would be taken by an equal bulk 
of water, which is heavier, and thus the attraction of 
gravity would act on the greater mass at the lesser 
distance. The author would apply a similar principle to 
the art of dining, and, instead of as usual keeping the 
delicacies until the last, when the appetite is palled by 
the previous dishes, he would give them first, when their 
enjoyment would be heightened by an excellent appetite. 
“ Ata party of six persons, if the dinner consisted of 
soup, fish, a joint, and three woodcocks, I maintain it 
would be much better to serve the woodcocks before the 
joint, both on the score of enjoyment and of bealth—of 
enjoyment, because a delicacy, when the appetite is nearly 
satisfied, loses a great part of its relish, and is reduced to 
the level of plainer food whilst the appetite is keen—of 
health, because it is much more easy to regulate the appe- 
tite when the least tempting dishes are brought last. By 
serving delicacies first, people would dine both more 
satisfactorily and more moderately, and entertainments 
would be less costly and less troublesome.”’ 
This quotation may serve as an example of the book. 
To quote all that is worthy would be to transcribe the 
volume, and if it were read carefully and acted up to by 
every host, dinners would become a source of pleasure, 
instead of being, as they too often are at present, weary 
stale, and unprofitable. 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
Studies on Apus, Limulus and Scorpio. By E. Ray 
Lankester, M.A., F.R.S. (London: J. and A. 
Churchill, 1881.) 
IN these exceedingly clever memoirs we have a proof of 
how much can be made out of even well-known subjects 
by assiduous research, when combined with some specu- 
lative talents. The first memoir on Apus cancriformiis is 
a valuable contribution to our knowledge of this most 
interesting Crustacean. The second on Limulus, an 
Arachnid, is even more interesting, and in its conclusions 
more startling, with it is combined a very elaborate com- 
parison of the various systems of Limulus with those of 
Scorpio, and starting with the undoubted affinity of 
Limulus to the strange extinct Eurypterina, we have the 
suggestion that the Merostomata, including under this 
head the Xiphosura, the Trilobita, and Eurypterina di- 
verged from the main stem of the Arthropod pedigree at 
a point between that indicated by the grade of organisa- 
tion of Peripatus, and that occupied by the Pro-Phyllo- 
poda or earliest Crustaceans, and it was in the time that 
these three great groups began to be formed, that each 
carried off with it some distinct evidence of their common 
departure. 
The illustrations vastly assist in explaining the various 
technical details, and we are glad to see a large number 
incorporated in the text, thereby being rendered much 
