This Week's Books
ARE the scintillating monographs in the " To-day and To-morrow " series losing a little of their sparkle ? It would be hardly surprising if they were. Lucullus ; or, The Food of the Future, by Miss Olga Hartley and Mrs. C. F. Leyel (Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, 2s. 6d.), opens with a brilliant picture of modem man, living in a vacuum-cleaned, steam-heated, credit-furnished suburban mansion " with a wolf in the basement "-the wolf of hunger. For we are threatened with famine, not only because the balance between the food producers and industrialists may at any time be upset, but also because our transport may break down at any moment, when our civilization will " come crashing in dusty ruins about our ears." Meanwhile we shall continue to dine in peace. Man is an adaptable animal, as the authors admit, able to live " on frogs and snails and puppy dogs' tails " if necessary. And the necessity is not obvious. But parts of this banquet of epigrams are excellent.
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