CONSTITUTION AND HEALTH.

By Raymond Pearl '99. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Cos.

Professor Pearl is well qualified to write on the relation of human constitution to disease from the point of view of modern biology. As a biologist he is perhaps best known for his work on biometry, particularly as applied to the human race both in health and in disease. In this little book, man is studied "in the same sort of way that a biologist deals with his problems in organisms lower in the evolutionary scale."

The value of the methods employedpainstaking accumulation of facts, logical classification, accurate statistical analysiscannot be overestimated. A failure to appreciate this accounts for a tremendous amount of medical literature which is not only useless but often harmful because false conclusions are drawn.

One chapter discusses bodity habitus, and presents an index for classifying human beings in respect to their somatology. Little is known of the reason for the predilection of certain diseases for particular body types; but when, through such accurate studies more is known, we will have progressed another step toward their prevention.

Professor Pearl's little book is amplified from a lecture, and retains the rather informal style of the platform.