The little lecture of thirty pages will well repay the time spent in reading it. H. A MANUAL OF DIET IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. By Thomas King Chambers, M.D., Oxon., F.R. C.P., London, Honorary Physician to H. R. H. the Prince of Wales; Consulting Physician to St. Mary's and the Lock Hospitals; Lecturer on Medicine at St. Mary's School; Corresponding Fellow of the Academy of Medicine. New York, etc., etc. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea. 1875. To those familiar with the writings of Dr. Chambers, his claim to share with Sir Thomas Watson the title of Xenophon of Medical Literature, will be readily conceded, for it is certain that he has few equals and no superior, as a master of elegant English, within the ranks of professional writers. His well-earned reputation in this regard will suffer no diminution from the work before us. The subject matter is arranged under three subdivisions, the first of which comprehends General Dietetics; the second, Special Dietetics of Health; and the third, Dietetics of Sickness. In the first is demonstrated, not only the essential constitution of a dietary system best adapted for the necessities of mankind in health, under varying conditions of existence, but likewise the great superiority, not only from a dietetic, but from an economic point of view, of a mixed diet, and one also which shall vary widely in its constituent elements, with the varying occupations and epochs of man's life. The second chapter, upon the choice of food, is not only instructive, but practically so, containing rules for the selection of the best meats, and their greater economic value. The sanitary relations of diseased meats and of animal parasites is condensed into a few comprehensive pages, so clearly and explicitly as to be intelligible to all. Dr. Chambers is an Englishman, writing in the smoky atmosphere of London, and hence we can account for his very feeble commendation of fruits as food. Had his lot been cast in sunnier lands where nature provides a more bountiful repast for her children, and where fruits constitute so large-sometimes the principal-portion of the food of all classes, his commendation would have been more liberal, his praise less stinted. From the admirably written chapter upon wines as dietetics, it is easy to perceive that our author is no "crusader," for none of that illustrious army could write so tastefully of the delicious juice of the grape. What could be more refreshing on a day like this, with the mercury up in the nineties, than to hear from the lips of a wise physician like Dr. Chambers, that "as a regular beverage for a healthy person there is no wine in the English market equal to claret"? In this era of temperance run mad, this author is to be thanked by every honest lover of temperate festivity for these words: "But I am quite sure that the not infrequent manufacture of occasions for domestic rejoicing, a birthday, a wedding anniversary, a harvest home, a horse sold, the planting of a tree, the calving of a cow, a daughter presented at court, or cutting her first tooth, or any other good stroke of business, is a great promoter, not only of love and happiness, but of personal health. Let the beverages which celebrate the occasion be chosen for their peculiar and exceptional flavors. If they are good of their class, the moderate use will not shorten, but both cheer and lengthen life." But the author is, nevertheless, as unsparing in condemning the use of alcohol, as the most ardent temperance reformer could desire. Not satisfied with the researches of others, he has instituted a series of experiments himself, for the purpose of determining the true place of alcohol in dietetic economy, and has furnished the results of these experiments in tabulated form. It would be well if the opinions expressed in the chapters upon Infant Diet, could be deeply impressed upon the minds of the rising generation of medical men-the rest are unimpressible-that the annual holocaust of infant life, offered upon the shrine of physiological ignorance, might be spared; if they could be convinced, with Dr. Chambers, that "Laputa never devised anything more preposterous" than "Liebig's food for infants,” and that "it is only when the coming teeth are on their road to the front that the parotid glands secrete sufficient saliva to digest farinaceous food." It is scarcely possible, within the limits of a brief review such as this, to do full justice to this scientific, practical, and scholarly little work. The simply practical man will find in it safe and simple rules for his guidance; the scientific man will find the demonstration of the principles upon which these rules are based; and the scholar will be able to gratify his literary and æsthetic taste in the elegant style in which they are presented. The book deserves to be read by all. BOOKS RECEIVED. H. TRANSACTIONS OF THE NEW YORK ODontological SOCIETY— Special meeting, Dec. 14, 15, 16, 1874. PAMPHLETS RECEIVED. ANNUAL ADDRESS before the Society of the Alumni of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania. By Cornelius G. Comegys, M.D., Lecturer on Clinical Medicine in the Cincinnati Hospital, Ohio; Late Professor of the Institutes of Medicine and Clinical Medicine in the Medical College of Ohio. With the Proceedings of the Alumni Meeting of 1875. INJECTIONS OF TINCTURE OF IODINE into the Cavity of the Uterus in Hæmorrhage, and after Delivery. By James Trask, M.D., late Prof. of Obstetrics in the Long Island College Hospital. New York: William Wood & Co. 1875. TRANSACTIONS of the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Medical Association of the State of Missouri, April 20th and 21st, 1875. THE ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE-The Medical Department of Union University, Annual Catalogue and Announcement. 45th Session. 1875. A CLINICAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE TREATMENT OF TUBAL PREGBy T. Gaillard Thomas, M.D. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1875. NANCY. SYNOPSIS TREATMENT OF UTERINE DISPLACEMENTS. By Prof. Henry F. Campbell, of Augusta, Georgia. MIAMI MEDICAL COLLEGE OF CINCINNATI-Sixteenth Annual Announcement. Session 1875 and 1876. ON THE USE OF HOT WATER IN SURGERY. By Frank H. Hamilton, Surgeon to Bellevue Hospital, New York. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1875. THE METROPOLITAN THROAT HOSPITAL, REPORT of. Clinton Wagner, M.D., Medical Supt. THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF THEBAINE. By J. Ott, M.D., of Easton, Pa. THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF DENTAL AMALGAMS. late Thomas Hitchcock, M.D., D.M.D. By the ON SPASMODIC URETHRAL STRICTURE. By F. N. Otis, M.D., Clinical Professor of Genito-Urinary Diseases at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. Reprinted from the Archives of Dermatology, Vol. I, No. 3. 1875. CLINICAL STUDIES WITH THE NON-NAUSEATING USE OF IpecacuANHA, Chiefly in Intermittents. Reprinted from Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal. 1875. An RELATIONS OF OPHTHALMOLOGY TO PRACTICAL MEDICINE. Introductory to the Summer Course of Lectures of the Jefferson Medical College, Delivered March 29, 1875, by William Thompson, M.D., Lecturer on Ophthalmic and Aural Surgery. PATHOLOGY AND ETIOLOGY OF PULMONARY PHTHISIS, in relation to its Prevention and Early Arrest. By E. Darwin Hudson, Jr., A.B., M.D. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1875. CERTAIN NERVOUS AFFECTIONS OF THE THROAT. By Clinton Wagner, M.D., Physician to the Metropolitan Throat Hospital; late Clinical Assistant, Hospital for Diseases of the Throat, London; Member of the N. Y. Laryngological Society; of the N. Y. County Medical Society; of the N. Y. Neurological Society, etc., etc. Read before the N. Y. Neurological Society, Sept. 7, 1874. Reprinted from the Psychological and Medico-Legal Journal for October, 1874. New York: F. Christern & Co., 77 University Place. NOTES ON THE DIAGNOSIS OF BLOOD STAINS. By Joseph G. Richardson, M.D., Microscopist to the Pennsylvania Hospital. IRIDOTOMY, and its Applicability to Certain Defects of the Eye. By W. B. Calhoun, M.D., Professor of Diseases of the Eye and Ear in the Atlanta Medical College, 1875. THE DOCTRINE OF THE CORRELATION AND CONSERVATION OF FORCES, and its Bearing upon Theism. By G. M. Duzan, M.D., Zionsville, Indiana. Reprinted from the Indiana Journal of Medicine. THE EXTENSION WINDLASS, presented to the American Medical Association, May, 1875. By Charles Dennison, M.D., Denver, Colorado. Reprinted from the N. Y. Medical Journal, May, 1875. New York: D. Appleton & Co. FIFTY FIFTH ANNUAL CATALOGUE AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF Oшо. Session 1875-6. Cincinnati. ANNUAL CIRCULAR 1875-6. ANNUAL CATALOGUE 1874-5. Bellevue Hospital Medical College. JOURNALS RECEIVED. The Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal-Vol. xiii, Nos. 3, 4. The American Medical Weekly-Vol. ii, Nos. 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, and Vol. iii, Nos. 1, 2. The American Practitioner-Vol. xl, Nos. 66, 67. L'Anatomie et de la Physiologie Journal de. Ch. Robin-No. 3, Mai et Juin, Paris, 1875. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences-No. cxxxix, July, 1875. The Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal-Vol. xiv, Nos. 9, 10. The Clinic-Vol. viii, Nos. 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, Vol. ix, Nos. 1, 2. The Druggists' Circular, Vol. xix, No. 7. The Eclectic Medical Journal-Vol. xxxv, No. 7. The Indiana Journal of Medicine-Vol. vi, Nos. 2, 3. The Kansas City Medical Journal-Vol. v, No. 3. The London Lancet, June, 1875. The Laboratory, Boston-Vol. i, No. 2. The Medical News and Library-Vol. xxxiii, Nos. 389, 391. The Monthly Abstract of Medical Sciences-Vol. ii, Nos. 5, 6, 7. The Medical Record, New York-Vol. x, Nos. 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. The Medical and Surgical Reporter, Philadelphia-Vol. xxxii, Nos. 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, Vol. xxxiii, Nos. 1, 2 |