The Body

The Functions of the Body. By V. H. Mottram. (Nisbet. is. 6d. net.)

Diseases of Animals : In Relation to Man. By E. T. Burke. (Faber and Gwyer. 3s. 6d. net.)

IF anyone wishes to possess his soul, he must take his body thoroughly into consideration. The Stoics called the highest quality in man the " hegemonical " principle, the principle of leadership and rule. And what kind of ruler would a man

. make who knew nothing of his realm, nothing of the capacities of his subjects, nothing of the limits and potentialities of his authority ?

Professor Mottram has written a very good survey of the functions of the body. As his title shows, he describes the " working " of the body rather than its structure. " Phy- siologists," he remarks, " look at a living organism in a par- ticular way. They ask of it : ' What does it do and how does it do it ? ' " His province, therefore, lies between the chemistry of the body, and psychology ; he cannot, in a popular book, deny himself infringements upon these terri- tories, but, if he trespasses, he makes full acknowledgment of the fact.

Perhaps one or two dramatic examples of the interruption of work will serve best to show the type of subject-matter. Natives of the Amazon prepare a subtle drug, curare, for poisoning their arrows. If it enters through the merest scratch in the skin it will paralyse their prey, stopping all muscular activity and leaving the animal helpless before the hunter. What has happened in the animal's body ?

The poison enters the wound and is carried in the blood- stream through the body. As it reaches the muscles, it cuts off communication between muscle and nerve. Messages which travel along the nerve are not transmitted. However urgent the need of motion may be, no response can be made. The whole muscular mechanism has been thrown out of control.

A different and even more miserable effect is caused by strychnine or tetanus poisoning. The nerves become over- sensitive. The most unimportant happenings of the body are reported as though they were matters of extreme urgency. Violent muscular contractions and spasms of the body follow from' a touch, a noise or a flash of light. Every centre for movement in the nervous system may be excited. " It is as though one telephone call to an exchange,". writes Professor .automatic

Mottram, " resulted in the ringing up of every subscriber." . _ .

Let us take another example of the influence of the body :-

" /2 man having lost the sight of both eyes and the hearing in one oar, and with great impairment of the hearing of the other, instantly went to sleep if placed with his better ear on the pillow, and could only be awakened by turning him over and shouting his name in his ear."

But here we recall the value of that r hegemonical " principle. Charles Dickens wrote of Laura Bridgeman, an-American child who, as a result of illness at the age of four, was left with only the sense of touch unimpaired. Nevertheless, through the energy and patience of her teacher, and the native ability of the child, she was able to adapt herself to life with surprising intelligence. It is obvious, however, that if all sensations were cut off from the mind, complete, trance-like sleep, or even death, would result.

Professor Mottram writes with a becoming scientific modesty. He admits, wherever it is necessary, that the functions of one organ or another have not yet been fully explored, and he allows us to see how much of our " knowledge " is still hypothesis. He Oyes a clear and interesting account of all the bodily systems—nervous, sensory, muscular, digestive, respiratory, circulatory, excretive, secretive and reproductive. It would be difficult to find a better handbook for general readers, or a better introduction to the whole subject for students who desire a broad survey before they take to specialized work.

The Modern Health Books, a series published by Messrs. Faber and Gwyer, are designed to give more detailed informs- tion the disasters which can befall our bodies, and the trays of av=oiding them. There is sometimes an unnecessary fear of disease ; it is almost better to succumb out of hand to

the first germ we meet- than to spend our lives in perpetual terror, as though the air were full of dragons and of the invisible forces of evil. Indeed, there are people who make as great a mortification of cleanliness in the fear of death as ever a monk made in the fear of the Judgment. It is best to be well- informed and alert, but at the same time to keep tranquillity and ease.

The three additions to the series are all of them good. Dr. James Kerr, writes particularly well. The power of the air, he reminds us, has always been felt ; it was regarded as the vital essence, the life-giver—" and rightly so, for all our life and energy exists by and can be measured in terms of air." It has taken us a long time, however, to understand the relation of air to our human existence, to analyse it and apportion to its components their different effects. Dr. Kerr is concerned mainly with the respiratory process ; he gives an account of the results upon our health of-breathing air which is rarefied, or too dense, imperfectly oxygenated, moist or dry, dust-laden,

smoky, or otherwise impure. And, incidentally, he disposes once more of the popular notion. that ozone is a notably beneficent gas. It will rot guttapercha tubing in prolonged contact with it, and it does not refrain from attacking the membranes of the lungs.

Dr. E. T. Burke has the serious task of trying to awake the national conscience upon the . subject of . venereal disease,

cancer, tubercidOsis and alcoholism. - His book is worthy of every recommendation : he writes Moderately; and with so much the more effectiveness. Dr. Caineimis.s book is'a pioneer work. . Nothing has previously- been written of precisely the same scope.. His study is of the diseases common to animals and men,,the-MethOds nf their dissethination, and the possi-

bility of control. - • JAMES ALLISON SELBY.