PUBLIC HEALTH

as: "In India it is rather exceptional to find a bakehouse built on sanitary principle. The law relating to them being very defective, any room or hut may be converted into a bakehouse", and in the description of the slum areas known as Bustees. The treatise is obviously written to meet the needs of medical practitioners, health officers and students in India itself, and where it deals with the general principles of hygiene it differs but little from other text-books on the subject. In matters of detail, however, it is very different. The chapters on diet and foods deal not only with the dietary problems presented in a country inhabited by different peoples of different nationalities, castes and creeds whose food habits differ markedly, but with many foodstuffs whose names are unfamiliar to Australian readers. The epidemiological problems presented by large aggregations of people, often under very primitive conditions, in connexion with religious festivals and pilgrimages are not met with by Australian health officers, nor are the sanitary problems posed by the various methods of disposal of the dead. These points of difference, while perhaps robbing the work of some of its usefulness to Australian students, certainly add greatly to its interest in other ways. The present edition is somewhat larger than its immediate predecessor. While the author found it necessary to delete certain portions, much new material has been introduced in almost every chapter. As in previous editions, contributions have been made by noted authorities on special subjects. The volume contains 764 pages with 153 illustrations and diagrams. Although the author ends his preface with a reference to abnormal conditions and the difficulty of getting paper and other materials and craves the indulgence of his readers for many shortcomings, there is little need for his plea, for the volume is well printed, the type is clear, misprints are Il'ew and the indexing is good. Although from the very nature of the work it is not altogether suitable as a text-book for students in temperate climates, it is a valuable work of reference to health officers in tropical regions.