are described in like manner with the cooking of meat. Soups, being among the most economical of dishes, receive a large share of attention. The author advises the housewife to make use of the full range of seasonings at her command, so as to increase the number of stimulating flavors that can be given to the food of the family. In conclusion, there are given twelve bills of fare for a family of six, costing on the average seventy-eight cents a day, twelve costing one dollar and twenty-six cents, and twelve dinners to be taken by a man to his work and eaten mostly cold. Other topics, namely, drinks at meals, cookery for the sick, and the buying of meat, are treated, and the author has deemed a few words on the arrangement of the kitchen not out of place. Mrs. Abel's mode of presenting her subject is thoroughly scientific, and at the same time is attractive and encouraging, and not above the comprehension of an ordinarily intelligent woman, if she is not afraid of columns of percentages, and such words as "proteid" and "carbohydrate." The book is sold for a nominal price, in order that the information it contains may be widely diffused. It is published in both paper and cloth covers, and in the German as well as the English language, and may be obtained by addressing Essay Department, American Public Health Association, P. 0. Drawer 289, Rochester, N. Y.
A Treatise on Massage, Theoretical and Practical. By Douglas Graham, M. D. Second edition, revised and enlarged. New York: J. H. Vail & Co. Pp. 342. Price, $2.75.
The history, mode of application, and effects of massage, indications and contra-indications, are also included in the title of this book. The author is known to the readers of the Monthly from his having published in it, in October, 1882, a description of General Massage, which was one of the fullest and most intelligible and satisfactory popular accounts of the subject that had till then been given, and which we believe did much to bring massage into general notice. The first edition of this work was published a little more than two years afterward, for the purpose of recalling the facts and observations scattered in numerous medical memoirs, and uniting them with the author's own experience. For the present edition, the work has been thoroughly revised, and enlarged with numerous additions, many of them confirmatory of statements previously regarded as doubtful. Two new chapters have been added—one on local massage for local neurasthenia, and the other on the treatment of scoliosis by means of massage. Much new and valuable information from European doctors is introduced on the uses of massage in affections of the ear, in scoliosis, in affections near and into joints, and in affections of the abdominal organs. The summary of the history of massage, to which two chapters are devoted, traces the development of the process from the rubbings of the most ancient times. According to Prof. Billroth, massage is as old as surgery itself and that means as old as mankind. Rubbing is spoken of by Homer, and was practiced among the Greeks and Romans, by people of different classes, in their gymnasia and their baths, among whom it seems to have been highly appreciated by men of note, eminent as physicians or philosophers, poets or historians; and so it has come down to us—not been discovered. It is also familiar and efficacious among many barbarous and savage peoples. In the chapter on the mode of applying massage, the point is maintained that the matter should not be left to novices, to persons who "have a knack" for it, or to those who take it up without instruction, or with imperfect instruction, but is one in which intelligence and professional skill have an important place, and which doctors should not be above engaging in personally. The study of the physiological effects of massage is declared to be commensurate with that of physiology itself. It "rouses dormant capillaries, increases the area and speed of the circulation, furthers absorption, and stimulates the vaso-motor nerves. . . . Seeing that more blood passes through regions massed in a given time, there will be an increase in the interchange between the blood and the tissues, and thus the work done by the circulation will be greater, and the share borne by each quantity less." The process is then shown, in particulars, to be beneficial in affections of the nervous system. In the succeeding chapters its application is discussed, with numerous citations of illustrative cases
