This book is readable, though its literary quality might be improved. Its contents, however, will be found useful by those who wish to apply dietetics to the treatment of disease. Very little is said about the chemistry of foods. The author endeavors to explain the principles underlying the use of foods and the essential reasons why a change of diet in certain diseases is desirable. Only the most important diseases, however, are discussed.
Chittenden's experiments, which have led him to fix on an unusually small quantity of proteid as the best standard for man. have interested students of dietetics chiefly during the last few years. Our author explains these experiments but does not adopt the standard unqualifiedly either for the healthy or the diseased. For the latter, he says, "it is an every-day experience that the protein must occasionally be reduced even below Chittenden's and often raised above Voit's standard."