In the development of this thesis Mr. McCann presents some facts already published and fully accepted, and an array of startling statements. Most of his reasoning is, of course, deductive, because scientists have little authentic data to offer on the effect of the various mineral elements or the lack of them, much less on the most desirable methods of introducing them into the human system. Though neither a university man, nor a graduate chemist, it appears that the author has had exceptional opportunities to study biochemistry as an amateur; and formerly, as advertising agent of a large food industry he spent much time in the food laboratory of the concern. Notwithstanding these qualifications, which he fully sets forth in his preface, some of his conclusions, for example the vital importance of ash in the system and the dire results of our ordinary dietary, though analogically sound, fail to convince the student and perhaps the layman.
On his second proposition, that an astonishing variety and an appalling quantity of our foods are poisonously adulterated both legally and criminally, the author stands on sure ground. Candies, ice-cream, extracts, patent medicines, preservatives, coloring materials are handled without reserve. The argument is supported almost wholly by old material, rather familiar to the magazine reading public; but the cumulative evidence, followed by a dissertation on the appalling and preventable infant death rate gives strength and conviction to the presentation.
The author is not merely destructive. He urges a campaign of education through the public press and pleads for courses and demonstrations of pure food stuffs and their effects in our schools and colleges. He has formulated a practical dietary, a daily menu for a week, of simple, wholesome food, based on the principles he has worked out, for children three years of age and over. His own children have thrived wonderfully on it. He describes in one of the most satisfactory chapters in the book an ideal restaurant that appeals both to one’s common sense and to his appetite.
On the whole the book is timely and deserves a wide reading. In the endeavor to catch the public ear by the presentation of a lurid array of facts under a sensational title I fear the author has overshot the mark. Thoughtful readers are likely to discount much that apparently has a reasonable basis of scientific study merely because of the overstraining after startling statement. The author’s style is not altogether pleasing, nor does it always carry conviction nor inspire confidence in the author. It is not a great book nor an epoch-making one, but it bears the stamp of sincerity, provided one reads to the end, and calls attention to a number of awful truths that should give us pause. The keynote of progress is “light and enlightenment,” rather than repression.
Alexander E. Cance.
THE THREE GIFTS OF LIFE
By Nellie M. Smith. Dodd, Mead & Co. 138 pp. Price $.50; by mail of The Survey $.56
The market is flooded with publications on education with reference to sex, and most of them are the product of superficial or one-sided knowledge and a ready pen. The emphasis is unduly put on disease because most writers are so impressed by the results of ignorance that they find it impossible to take the attitude of the normal, healthy individual whom they are trying to reach.
Among this mass of material, there have been two or three books which could be put into the hands of young girls, but even these should be used with care. The large demand for a good book and our failure to meet it has been a source of anxiety to all who have appreciated the dire need which it voiced. Then came The Three Gifts of Life, which answers the appeal for knowledge concerning the mysteries of reproduction, showing the origin of life in plants, animals and human beings—not detached as physiological fact but interwoven in ordinary experience.
The Three Gifts are the three attributes by which the different forms of life progress: i.e., dependence, as illustrated by plants; instinct, plus dependence, as shown by animals; choice, plus dependence and instinct, which are given to every human being.