The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-07-16
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Hygiene and Physical Culture forWomen
By Anna M. Galbraith. The author in
her preface says: s'This work has been
in preparation for six years, and all FAC
cessible works bearing on the subject
have been carefully studied. The works
of the most noted anatomists, physiolo-
gists, hygienists, as well as those of the
most eminent authorities on the diseases
of women have been carefully drawn
upon, since many of them are inaccessible
to the general reader The need of this
work was felt by the author in the many
years of her student life as well as since
then in her professional life to control the
ignorance shown by the masses of other
wise well-educated women in regard to
all the functions of the human body
The army of diseases caused by the use
of the corset, and which makes the chief
support of the doctors, is startling. The
author says: "On eating, be it remem-
bered, that the stomach turns on its
axis so that the greater curvature shall be
anterior where there is more room for
digestion to be carried on. Now, where
can the fashionable woman's stomach
turn to while she eats her dinner, orsshow
will the liver be able to receive the blood
laden with the products of digestion? The
woman who wears corsets cripples her
lungs to the extent of one fifth of their
entire capacity. The pity of it is if
woman for all these years has purposely
sacrificed health to the corset in order to
increase her charms, and has only succeed
ed in producing horrible distortion :"
The work abounds in useful information
and sound ADVICE which if needed, would
do much towards improving the health of
women. Gymnasiums are only
just old enough, says the
author, to show that the physical
deterioration caused by centuries of i'm
proper modes of dress and life can to a
great extent be overcome, and that the
question of her physical development lies
in her own hands. The work is profusely
illustrated. New York: Dodd, Mead
& Co.. Portland: Loring, Short & Har-
mon.
My Literary Passions By W. D. How
ellis In the first chapter of this work
called THE Bookcase at Home, ~ the au-
thor says, "To give an account of ones
reading is in some sort to give an account
of his life.'' 81 do not expect to speak
here of all my reading whether it has
been much or little, but only of those
books or of those authors that I have felt
a genuine passion for. have known such
passions at every period of my. life, but it
is mainly of the loves of my youth that
1 shall write His father had a decided
bent for literature. He loved Burns and
used to read aloud from him, much to the
authors inexpressible WEAKNESS; but
when his father read Lallah Rookh to his
mother he sat up to listen and entered
into all the woes of Iran in the story of
the Fire Worshippers. "When began to
have literary likings of my own and to
love certain books above others, the first
authors of my heart were Goldsmith
Ceryantes and Irying' Goldsmith came
first and he came SO early that the author
cannot remember when or how he tried
to read him. He writes, Were he to choose
for any other boy he does not know how
he could choose better than his first three
loves in literature, kindred spirits, and
each not master only, but sweet and
gentle friend, whose kindness could not
fail to profit him. L kept Irving and
Goldsmith and Cervantes on their old
affairs, but l added new ones and these |
translated from the contemporary literary
world quite as often as from the past :"
In one of his criticisms he writes. "When
l realized what lives some of my poets
had led, how they were drunkards, and
swindlers and unchaste and untrue, l
lalnented over them with sense of per-
sonal disgrace in them, and to this day
have no patience with that code of the
world which relaxes itself in behalf of
the brilliant and gifted offender; rather
he should suffer more blame. The book
is delightful throughout with reminis-
cences of the authors boyhood andEyouth
and OF friends he met by the way, and
shows clearly how step by step he has at
tanned to the position he now holds in the
field OF literature AS literary criticism
OF many well known authors and their
works the book will prove of great inter-
est and value. New York: Harper &
brothers; Portland; Loring, Short &
Harmony
Examinations. By Henry James. This
volume contains four short stories. The
Death of the Lion, ThesCoxon Fund, The