Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-06-05


general, the approach to the human body.
Schooling on the subject has been nothing
A little better, perhaps, than it was, but moth
ing to speak of yet.
"A great part of the books used in the
physiology course are filled with a pious ped
antry designed to instill a horror OF alcohol
house flies and school desks and devoted over
whole tracts to accounts Of the derogatory
effect of tobacco on scholarship" True, too
You, yourself, recall the dreary counting Of
bones the cautious naming of organs, the wary
placing of these. Never with the vaguest
thought that these lessons were about the most
important and vital thing in the world to you
from the standpoint of knowledge, yourself.
Well here is something different. Indeed
quite gloriously different. Here is an approach
to you, to me, from the standpoint of the hu-
man body as a prime factor in civilization
An imperative that it be known and reckoned
as such in its progressive responses to heredity
and environment
Here the human body becomes ineligible
and engrossing as an organism, mechanism
whose task it is to turn food and air into body
energy and tissue. Again, it is an organism,
bent to the business of reproducing itself, of
perpetuatng its own kind. And that's the sum
and substance of the human body in its en-
gagement with life.
Under these two headings there is Or
derby discussion of parts and functions OF
general effects and special variants in these
Nothing unusual here Nothing except that
the whole is presented in clear knowledge of
facts, salient and productive. Presented too
in a spirit of discovery, in the ardor and joy
of great finding. Presented, too, with the
drive and gusto that prime work demands.
Here in a way of speaking, the human body
comes into the house and sits down and tells.
knowingly, infallibly and excitngly, the great
story Of itself Here, among other tales, is
that of disease-of its sources, its prevention,
its realities and unrealitieS.
Not so different, you see from any other
orderly presentation of the subject. The amaz-
ing differences between this book and any
other upon the subject that 1 have seen is
in the drive of its essential facts, in its short
shrift to nonsense. irrelevancy. make believe
and Indifference. Through course with your
own body quite the most absorbing adventure
that you will soon come upon again, certain
captions stand out to take away and carry
around through the days work. Here is a
handful: Don't worry. You have been mis-
taken!'
For-and here tumble some of our special
bodily misapprehensions-eight hours sleep is
not essential to health. Overwork does not lead
to nervous breakdown. Fatigue does not &C
cumulate from day to day. does not necessitate
q long rest for recuperation. Again, a carefully
planned diet is not essential to health. Mod
ern life is not too strenuous for our nerves to
stand. Brain work is not very fatiguing 1t
does not cause brain flag and exhaustion.
There is more along the same line. But,
these announcements all buttressed by expert
knowledge in the body of the book, are enough,
and more, to take from us some OF the most
precious prejudices, the very ones with which
we scoop in sympathy, called understanding. "
A great book. One to place upon the night
table by the bedside, along with-well, along
with the Bible and other best loved books -
UNDERTOW. BY A. Hamilton Gibbs, author
of "Soundings" etc. Boston, Little. Brown
and Co.
TIVE novels, since 1926 serve to point the
] fact that Maj Gibbs has taken definitely
to a way of fiction, whose superstructure of
action. current and popular, is, nevertheless,
founded soldly upon one or another of the
few essentials that dominate and direct human
existence.
HomesickneSS, the universal nostalgia Of man
for some other where for some other way than
this way-such the theme CT "Undertow."
Upon its surface carrying the tale along, is
q young fellow teaching boys in an English
school. He hates the job. AS a natural ease
ment to the sheer grind Of the day he falls
in love. An engagement is on and marriage
is ominously near. Now, Of course he is not
in love. Propinquity is jade, working weird
martial patterns upon the social fabric. The
young woman is of modern business brand,
rounding up wedding with cards and presents
and cosy little fat and all the rest of it in
a celebrity to delight the heart of business
competency. But it scares this boy to despera-
ton.
Then-Sorry moment in the record of any
hero, even a story hero, the fellow turns tail
and runs away. 1t is the "undertow" that
pulls him straight to the source Of his blood.
away from the cold and calculating English
flow. Like the instructive animal, he ran
straight home, home to the south Of France.
No. he had no notion that this was the cradle
of his tribe till he arrived. He knew it then.
Here follows the story. An idyl. An impos-
sible tale as modern matters run. Yet, a dream
of sheer contentment of painting among the
hills, of deep inner satisfactions drawn from