Abstract
THIS little book is well adapted to secure the aim of the author, which is “to give sufficient information on the particular portions of the sciences involved to enable readers …. to appreciate fully the fundamental principles of hygiene.” There can be no doubt of the importance, one might truly say, the national importance, of the spread of sound knowledge regarding the laws of health. Such sound knowledge cannot be attained except it be built upon a well-laid foundation of chemistry and physiology. To lay the foundation, and rear the structure, in a little book of 160 pages is almost impossible. Dr. Kimmins has, wisely, omitted much; but what he retains is of fundamental importance; his facts are clearly enunciated and systematically arranged. A careful study of this book, especially when it is supplemented, as it is meant to be, by a course of lectures, cannot fail to be most useful. The book is written for ordinary people, not for professional students; the teaching is sound and clear. The first chapter, on the principles of chemistry, is the least satisfactory in the book; but in this chapter the author has attempted, what is surely unattainable, to give an elementary knowledge of the features of chemical action, the use of chemical symbols, and the molecular and atomic theory, in sixteen small pages. As an introduction to the stuly of the application of chemical facts and principles to the conditions of healthy life, the book is to be thoroughly recommended.
The Chemistry of Life and Health.
“University Extension Manuals.” By C. W. Kimmins., Staff Lecturer in Chemistry, Cambridge University Extension Scheme. (London: Methuen and Co., 1892.)
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Our Book Shelf. Nature 47, 198 (1892). https://doi.org/10.1038/047198a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/047198a0