1884.1 
A nalyses of Books. ^ q 
and poultry. The “ starvation remedies ” are very justlv 
rejected, because while we are starving we lose albumen as well 
as tat. Excessive bodily exercise is also ineffective. Banting in 
ns confessions tells us that he rowed a heavy boat for a couple of 
lours daily and gained muscular power, and also a very heartv 
appetite. As he yielded to its demands he still increased in 
weight. 
There is a condition powerfully opposed to corpulence which 
Ur. Ebstein does not direCtly mention, though he refers to its 
antithesis as promoting fatness in men and in the lower animals, 
i here are few persons advanced in life who will not agree with 
us that in the first, and even in the second quarters of the present 
century corpulency was not a perfectly normal feature among 
Englishmen who had reached their fiftieth year. The “ fair round 
belly ” — whether or not “ with good capon lined ’’—was prevalent 
among country gentlemen, clergymen, publicans, tradesmen, &c. 
this is now evidently no longer the case. The cause of the 
change is not an increased amount of bodily exercise nor a more 
rational diet. It is simply anxiety— work under pressure. But 
though this is the surest remedy, or rather preventive, for corpu- 
lency, it is one which no physician would recommend to his 
patients. For the author’s own system of treatment, which seems 
judicious, we must refer our readers to the work itself. 
In an appendix we find reference to the case of Cornaro, who 
from Ins fortieth to his hundred-and-fourth year restricted him- 
self daily to 12 ozs. of bread, yolk of egg, meat, and soup, alon°- 
with 14 ozs. of liquid. As the author remarks, Cornaro does not 
state whether he was corpulent or lean at the time when he 
adopted this strict regimen. It may be added that he makes no 
mention of his subsequent habits. If his life was spent in 
inactivity we need not wonder that he found a slender fare 
beneficial. 
Spectrum Colours, Colour Sensations, and After Images. 
Suggestion for Extending the Dynamical Theory. By^G. 
St. Clair, F.G.S. Birmingham : Herald Press. 
This memoir, reprinted from the “ Proceedings of the Birmingham 
Philosophical Society,” has been courteously forwarded to us by 
the author. In it we find some considerations on colour which, 
in our humble opinion, merit the attention both of the physicist 
and of the physiologist. The author, after giving a table of the 
vibration-numbers of the spectrum colours, asks if it is not ano- 
malous that while these colours are a regular series and pass into 
each other by slow gradation, three of them should deserve to be 
called primary, and the other four secondary or derived. 
