Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-06-18
BOOK REVIEWS.

0VVh hov III w Ne
THE HoxE HAND Book OF DOMESTIC HYGIENE AND |
RATIONAL MEDICINE By ]. H. Kellogg, NJ D., |
etc Oakland, Cal: Pacific Press Sold b, SUD- |
scription. Sacramento agent, George Lytle.
It is curious fact that whereas medical
science becomes more complex every year,
and the standard of medical education is be-
ing continually advanced, the tendency to
amateur practice seems to grow in CORE.
spending ratio, and the size and elaborate
ness of books Of domestic medicine are ever
on the increase. The one before us is the
most ambitious and the largest of its kind.
It aims in fact at encyclopedia information.
In huge volume of nearly 1.60O pages an
attempt is made to cover in some way the en-
tire ground of human hygiene and pathology,
at the same time giving sufficient outline
of anatomy and physiology to render the ex'
planation of the various disease symptoms
intelligible. The author has evidently done
his work quite conscientiously, and he has
| certainly brought together great deal OF
very useful information concerning the laws
OF health. In work of this character 1t is
possible to do much mischief by quackery,
| ignorance, presumption and hobby-riding.
DIR. Kellogg appears to have more than one
hobby, but he rides them all so energetically
that the ultimate effect is to make them
neutralize one another. He belongs to the
school of antI-narcoties and stimulants. and
he wages such fierce war not only upon alco-
hol in all its forms, but upon tea and coffee
upon tobacco and all other narcotics and
sedatiyes, that whoever should undertake to
follow his advice strictly on all these points
would be compelled to devise an entirely
new regimen, and practically to isolate him
self from his kind. In many of the observa-
tions upon narcotics and stimulants the author
is extravagant and not Judicial. 1t is evil
dent however, that he is strongly impressed
with sense OF the Importance of the mat
ter, and that his zeal is wholesome even
where excessive. The scope of the book may
be gathered from a brief sketch of its con-
tents 1t opens with anatomy, physiology,
and hygienics, which are discussed in minute
details. The second part relates to food and
diet, and includes an examination of the
adulteration of food, which is very season.
able. The third part deals with Water
"its uses and danger from contamination. !"
The fourth part is devoted to stimulants and
narcotics The fifth part concerns the hy-
giene of the air, embracing the questions of
drainage and ventilation. This is a particularly
valuable section. The remainder of the work
is occupied with rational remedies for dis
ease, description of diseases and their treat
rnent, accidents and emergencies, and sur
gerry. 1t is very much i'll his favor that the
author goes fully with the advanced medical
school, which trusts SO much more to Nature
than to Art. His remedies and methods of
treatment are decidedly conservative. Per-
haps he is prone to lay too much stress upon
the hydropathic methods, but it may be said
that if the cold compress or the pack are re-
sorted to in the absence of regular prac-
titioner they are very much less likely to do
serious mischief than experiments on fam
lily medicine chest of the old fashion, loaded
to the muzzle with such semples" as
"laudomy and calomy." DIR. Kellogg in
deed expressly disclaims any purpose to make
his work substitute for the doctor. He
merely aims at imparting so much knowledge
of the laws of life as may lead people to pay
due regard to these laws, and not kill them
selves by obstinate and chronic violations of
them. And if the Doctors style is not the
most refined, and his science is sometimes
rather misty, he has nevertheless succeeded
in bringing together mass of valuable infor-
nation very little of which can be superhu-
Gus in any family, and a great deal of which
it will benefit all to acquire The work con-
tairs o large number Of illustrations, most of
which are explanatory of the text. Il EN-.
braces a great many receipts and prescrip-
tions for use in the simpler forms of illness or
temporary arrangement, and the directions
for accidents and emergencies are calculated
to be specially useful. The section in regard
to ventilation and drainage Is one of the most
important, inasmuch as these questions go to
the root of hygiene, and inasmuch as many
people who are prompt enough to take medi-
cine when they feel unwell are the last to
realize that their illness is being caused by
bad drainage or ventilation. Taking the
book as a whole, and considering the extent
of the field over which it ranges, we have no
hesitation in expressing the opinion that it
is one of the best of the class we have seen,
and that while much of its instruction is neo-
essarily elementary, it is for the most part
correct and lucidly conveyed. The work is
well and strongly bound, but the only objec.
tion to it is its size and consequent weight.
1t would have been much more conveniently
arranged in two volumes.
TURKISH LrYB Is WAR TINE. By Henry O. Dwight.
New York: Charles SCI liners Sons San Fran
cisco: A. l.. Bancroft & Co.
A considerable portion of the matter used
in this volume has already appeared in the
Censtantinople correspondence of the New
York Tribune during the Russo-Turkish war
Nevertheless it deserved to be reprinted in q
mora permanent and available shape, for it
contains some of the most intelligent and
wise criticism of the Turkish Government
that has been made at all. It is at once ap-
parent that the author has lived long in the
East, for be is thoroughly familiar with Ori-
entail habits and tendencies, and he knows
the Constantinople Government and people
as only one at least half-naturslized among
them could Standing by without prejudice
on either side, he watches the development of
the quarrel with Russia, and the progress OF