1876.] 
Notices of Books. 
533 
created by the Public Health Adt has scarcely, as our author 
hopes would be the case, brought “ fresh emolument and honour 
to the profession.” In some districts, where there is abundant 
work, the “ Medical Officer of Health ” receives a salary of ^10 
yearly, on the understanding that he is not to interfere with any 
source of disease and death. 
Mr. Dale’s remedy for the repletion and consequent degrada- 
tion of the profession is that the present multiplicity of examining 
and licensing boards should cease, and that there should be only 
one portal through which all should enter, and that under more 
stringent regulations. The author’s proposals deserve careful 
consideration, and would be as a whole beneficial, though we 
cannot endorse them in detail. 
Blue - and Sun-Lights ; their Influence upon Life , Disease, &c. 
By General A. J. Pleasanton. Philadelphia : Claxton 
and Co. London : Triibner and Co. 
We have here a book printed in blue ink, bound in blue, and 
treating on the chemico-physiological adtion of the blue ray of 
light. The author’s fundamental experiment is as follows A 
vinery was built in 1861. Its dimensions, situation as regards 
the points of the compass, &c., are minutely described, and 
present nothing remarkable. But every eighth row of glass in 
the roof was of violet glass, the rows on opposite sides alter- 
nating. The mould had no peculiarity, and the vines, of twenty 
different sorts, were planted in the usual manner in the month of 
April. In the early part of September, the same year, some of 
the vines were found to be 45 feet in length, and an inch in 
diameter at a foot from the ground, whilst similar vines, planted 
about the same time, had only reached the length of 5 feet. In 
September, 1862, the vinery yielded 1200 lbs. of grapes. The 
remark is added that “ in grape-growing countries a period of 
from five to six years will elapse before a single bunch of grapes 
can be produced from a young vine.” The next season (1863) 
the yield of grapes was 2 tons, the vines being perfectly healthy 
and free from disease. “ So on, year by year, the vines have 
continued to bear large crops of fine fruit without intermission 
for the last nine years. They are now healthy and strong, and 
as yet show no signs of decrepitude or exhaustion.” 
Similar experiments have been made on poultry, pigs, and on 
a calf, and in all cases the result is described as being analogous 
— -accelerated maturity, increased size, weight, and vigour. 
Now we do not for a moment wish to accuse General Plea- 
santon of trifling with the public, and we can scarcely see how 
the enthusiasm to which all discoverers are liable can have led 
