REVIEWS. 
301 
tion. But these are very small faults to have to find 'with an article which 
on the whole is really very good indeed. We may, in conclusion, give the 
headings of the several other chapters, which are, we believe, reprints from 
different journals. These are as follows : — The brain and its servants; the 
faculty of hearing ; the eye and sight ; the sense of smell ; the sense of 
taste : digestion ; the skin ; corpulence ; the bath ; the sense of touch ; notes 
on pain ; respiration ; taking cold ; influenza ; headache ; sleep ; sleepless- 
ness ; ventilation ; the liver and its diseases ; muscular motion ; occupation 
and health ; and lastly, training and gymnastics. 
NE would imagine that no book would be more popular than a work 
which treated fully and fairly of the different varieties of food, and of 
their action on the human body. Yet it is strange that, as a rule, books on 
food, for some reason or other, are by no means popular, and are read by very 
few, even of those medical men whom they especially concern. However, 
we trust that in the present instance this rule will not hold good, for 
the author has been at pains to introduce into this volume everything in the 
faintest degree of scientific value which touches on his subject; and he has 
not only done so, but he has taken care that only the most recent views on the 
physiology of digestion have found a place in his pages. The book is a very 
vast one, of course, from the extended nature of the treatment adopted in it, 
for it covers nearly 550 pages of large octavo, and of comparatively small 
type. Yet we do not think the author has wasted space ; for throughout 
he appears to have adopted a habit of condensation, and his style is remarkably 
good, and, above all things, clear and decisive. The part which seems to us 
of greatest interest is that in which he discusses the physiological question 
regarding the exact nature of the waste of the human body, and hence 
the nature of the food which we should take in compensation for the loss 
caused by vital action ; in other words, to repair our bodies. Of course 
many other points are discussed in the work, as for instance the following : 
— The classification of foods ; animal and vegetable foods, and beverages ; 
the preservation of food ; principles of dietetics ; practical dietetics ; thera- 
peutic dietetics; and hospital dietaries. But it is to the physiologico- 
chemical part we would alone refer. In discussing this part of. the subject the 
author has been, of course, from his medical and chemical knowledge, quite 
at home, and he has done his work -well. He has brought before the reader 
an amount of information which lias till now lain in the proceedings 
and journals of English and foreign societies. So that, in point of fact, his 
views, or those he adopts, will strike the great majority of his readers as 
being absolutely novel. We would especially refer to those remarkably 
accurate observations and careful experiments of Messrs. Fick and Wisli- 
cenus, in Switzerland; Flint, of New York; Parkes, Lawes, and Gilbert, 
of England. In dealing with the results arrived at by each of these autho- 
* 11 A Treatise on Food and Dietetics, physiologically and therapeutically 
considered.” By F. W. Parry, M.D., F.Tt.S. London : Churchill, 1874. 
FOOD AND DIETETICS.* 
