'Fruits, Nuts, and Vegetables : their Uses as Food and Medicine," a new 3d. edition of a booklet which has gone to its forty-fourth thousand, is an admirable compilation, adapting the quaint and half-forgotten lore of many herbals to the needs of modern life.'

A friend sent me the other day Dr. E. H. Dewey's book, 'A New Era for Women : Health without Drugs.' This book seems to have considerable attraction for many people, but I should say it was rather addressed to those who take drugs, or who over-eat, as his great panacea for health seems to be leaving off breakfast - a remedy much more necessary in America, where they have ten dishes at that meal. He preaches a great deal what we are all beginning to know and even to believe - that Nature is a wonder worker. His system of no-breakfast is based on the fact that sleep never makes anyone hungry, the gnawing sensation in the morning which people mistake for hunger being caused by the indigestion of the previous night's dinner or supper. Food will certainly stop this pain, but only at the expense of further digestive trouble, and hot water would be the best treatment of this spurious hunger, as it would cleanse the stomach of its unwholesome condition and help it to regain a normal and healthy desire for food. Most people relieve it by biscuits and milk in the night. Of course, there is such a thing as healthy hunger in the morning for those who have well digested their dinner the night before, and who have done several hours' work before breakfast.

The Perfect Way in Diet.' - A book which for its size contains a greater wealth of scientific information than almost any I know on the subject, is 'The Perfect Way in Diet,' by Mrs. Anna Kingsford, M.D. It is a translation of her ' These pour le Doctorat' presented at the Faculty de Medicine of Paris on taking her degree in 1880, and is just one of those good things which the public is apt to lose sight of in the rush of new books. The treatise opens with a clear and able condensation of anatomical and physiological evidence for man's frugi-vorous habit, culminating in the following passage: 'If we have consecrated to this sketch of comparative anatomy and physiology a paragraph which may seem a little wearisome in detail, it is because it appears necessary to combat certain erroneous impressions affecting the structure of man which obtain credence, not only in the vulgar world, but even among otherwise instructed persons.' How many times, for instance, have we not heard people speak with all the authority of conviction about the 'canine teeth ' and ' simple stomach ' of man, as certain evidence of his natural adaptation for a flesh diet ! At least we have demonstrated one fact: that if such arguments are valid, they apply with even greater force to the anthropoid apes - whose ' canine ' teeth are much longer and more powerful than those of man - and the scientists must make haste therefore to announce a rectification of their present division of the animal kingdom in order to class with the carnivora and their proximate species all those animals which now make up the order of primates. And yet with the solitary exception of man, there is not one of these last which does not in a natural condition absolutely refuse to feed on flesh! M. Pouchet, in his 'Pluralite de la Race Humaine,' observes that all the details of the digestive apparatus in man, as well as his dentition, constitute 'so many proofs of his frugivorous origin ' - an opinion shared by Professor Owen, who remarks that the anthropoids and all the quadrumana derive their alimentation from fruits, grains, and other succulent and nutritive vegetable substances, and that the strict analogywhichexists betweenthestructureofthese animals and that of man clearly demonstrates his frugi-vorous nature.This is also the view taken by Cuvier in 'Le Regne Animal,' Professor Lawrence in 'Lectures on Physiology,' CharlesBellin 'Diseasesof theTeeth,' Linnaeus, Gassendi, Flourens, andagreatnumber of other eminent writers.Thelast-namedscientist gives expression to his views after the following manner :Man is neither carnivorous nor herbivorous.He has neither the teeth of the cud-chewers, nor their four stomachs, nor their intestines.If we consider these organs in man, we must conclude him to be by nature and origin frugivorous, as is the ape.It may possibly be objected that since, according to natural structure and propensities, man is a fruit and seed eater, he ought not to partake of those leguminous plants and roots which belong rather to the dietary of the herb-eaters, whose organisation we have shown to differ in so many details from that of man.It may be urged that trouble is wasted in proving to what order man belongs by nature, since with him, alone of all animals, Art has superseded Nature, and has enabled him by means of fire, condiments, and disguise, to eat and digest without disgust, and even with relish, the food of the tiger, the wolf, and the hyena.Such objections are notwithout anair of reason; and I shall meet them first by the frank statement that the most excellent and proper aliments of which our race can make use consist of tree-fruits and seeds, and not of the plants themselves, whether foliage or roots.'

Just lately a book has come to my hand which I think will be of the greatest use to those who are staggered by Dr. Haig's scientific language. It is called 'Medical Essays,' by T. E. Allinson, physician and surgeon, but note, as he does on his title-page, that he is ' Ex ' L.R.C.P., &c. This book, in 1901, had reached its twenty-ninth thousand, a sale as cheering as it is enormous, showing as it does how its teaching must have permeated all classes. It is in fact a popular mixture of very short articles on health, food, ailments, management of children, and general instructions for right living, and makes the whole subject of physical well-being so plain and straightforward, that I think no head of a young family should be without it. So many are deterred from trying moderation and abstemiousness by the severity of Dr. Haig's measures, that it might help them greatly to read Dr. Allinson's explanations, and begin by trying his less strict form of diet. I should certainly have bought his largest book (price 10s. 6d) if I had known of it. As it was, I got Book F. at 6s. 6d., which is naturally less complete.