No\-EMnER 19, 190!)] 



SCIENCE 



111 



Treatment of Eound Back, Stooped and Un- 

 even Shoulders; Chapter IV., Scoliosis, its 

 Causes, Varieties, Diagnosis and Prognosis; 

 Chapter V., The Treatment of Scoliosis; 

 Chapter VI., Exercise and Athletics as a Fac- 

 tor in Disease of the Circulation ; Chapter 

 VII., Obesity — its Cause and Treatment; 

 Chapter VIII., Other Diseases of Nutrition; 

 Chapter IX., Exercise in the Treatment of 

 Nervous Diseases ; Chapter X., The Treatment 

 of Locomotor Ataxia by Exercise. 



In reading the preface and looking over the 

 table of contents one is struck with the fact 

 that the author has planned to reach a wide 

 range of readers, and for that reason has 

 brought together a variety of material that is 

 not usually so associated. He states in the 

 preface that " the following pages are ad- 

 dressed to students and practitioners of phys- 

 ical training; to teachers of the youth; to 

 students of medicine and to its practitioners, 

 with the purpose to give a comprehensive view 

 of the space exercise should hold in a complete 

 scheme of education and in the treatment of 

 abnormal or diseased conditions." A single 

 text must be popularly written if it is planned 

 for the student and practitioner of physical 

 training; the teacher of the youth; and for the 

 student and practitioner of medicine. The 

 technicality of the average medical treatise is 

 unintelligible to the average teacher of the 

 youth or student or practitioner of physical 

 training, and the usual presentation of the 

 principles and practise of physical training 

 contains more or less that is technical to all 

 but the student and practitioner of physical 

 training. Dr. ilcKenzie has succeeded in 

 presenting Part I., Exercise in Education, 

 with but little technicality, and Part II., Ex- 

 ercise in Medicine, with only moderate tech- 

 nicality. The book, therefore, is a popular 

 book. It is, also, to some degree, a reference 

 book. 



On page 33 it is stated that "... in every 

 course of athletic training the blood is still 

 further thickened by restricting the amount 

 of fluid ingested to replace evaporation." Dr. 

 McKenzie takes the position that " condition " 

 is the result of a " drying out " of the tissues 



and a thickening of the blood. This is the 

 point of view of the trainer, but it is a deduc- 

 tion which is hardly justified scientifically. 

 It is true that exercise increases the specific 

 gravity of the blood somewhat, but so does 

 sleep. The ingestion of food and the progress 

 of the day decreases the specific gravity. One 

 can hardly draw relevant conclusions from 

 such data. Furthermore, the present tendency 

 on the part of trainers is to break away from 

 strict water restrictions and the success of 

 those trainers has been as great as under the 

 so-called tissue-drying process. 



Page 35, " milometers " should read " milli- 

 meters " (mercury). 



The reasons assigned for blood pressure 

 changes in the chapter on The Physiology of 

 Exercise are almost entirely mechanical. The 

 influences of the vaso-motor reflexes seem not 

 to have been considered. 



Page 39, "... in fatigue, the will tires long 

 before the contracting power of the muscle is 

 lost." Lee states that " the former and still 

 common idea that the brain and spinal cord 

 are readily fatiguable, and in fact are the first 

 part of the individual to succumb in a contest, 

 seems not to be justified by the experiments 

 of Hough, Storey, Woodworth, Joleyko, Krae- 

 pelin and others." ' 



Page 42, " The men were then wrapped in 

 blankets . . . and showed a further loss (in 

 weight). In no case was any gain found." 

 Dr. McKenzie should have given his series of 

 experiments a fuller consideration. There is 

 back of the sentence " in no case was any gain 

 found," an interesting discussion and investi- 

 gation of the question as to the possibility of 

 a gain in weight from inspired oxygen after 

 extreme losses in weight during strenuous 

 exercise. 



Pages 126 and 129. A reference or an ac- 

 count of the researches on which the results 

 are based should accompany the very interest- 

 ing and valuable tables classifying athletic 

 games and exercise, and giving their influence 

 on blood pressure. 



' " Physical Exercisie from the Standpoint of 

 Physiology," Frederic S. Lee, Amer. Physical 

 Edtic. Review, April, 1909, p. 5. 



