In few departments of medical knowledge are precision and resource more desirable than in that of medical dietetics. The selection and prescription of foods for the delicate, the sick and the aged require not only a knowledge of the leading features of the varied nutritional derangements presented, but also the faculty of perceiving what modifications may be necessary for each individual case, since almost every patient has his personal peculiarity to be ascertained and provided for. The first thing necessary for "food and feeding- in health and disease " is to be well instructed in the elements of physiology, the nature of foods, and the normal laws of feeding, as well as in the deviations by which the action of these laws is modified. To this must be added some practical acquaintance with kitchen usage and processes. A certain familiarity with the resources of the cook is essential to furnish a suitable daily menu, which shall be agreeable to the invalid, and as much as possible varied within the narrow limits which are dictated by the circumstances of each case. No man is a really accomplished physician or surgeon who has not made dietetic principles and practice an important part of his professional education. I do not hesitate to express my opinion that the present volume forms a handbook to the subject, thus briefly set forth in these few lines, which will not only interest the dietetic student, but offer him, within its modest compass, a more complete epitome thereof than any work which has yet come under my notice. It is so because its accomplished authoress has the advantage of possessing not only a remarkable acquaintance with the various branches of medical knowledge, after many years devoted to their study, but also in no less degree that which has been conferred by long culinary and housewifery experience. I can strongly commend this book, therefore, as supplying an important want in our educational literature.

HENRY THOMPSON, F.R.C.S., M.B., Lond.