Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/431

Rh of industry and abstinence" (the "universal dividend," as it might be called) "is a mass of wealth varying in amount, and divided in varying proportions among the agents to its production." Holding this view, the author obviously can not accept the wage-fund theory nor the theory that labor is the residual claimant to the product of industry, nor the doctrine that "rent does not enter into the expenses of production," and his next three chapters are devoted to criticisms of these doctrines. In his criticism of the first-named theory he comes in conflict with Mill, Fawcett, and Cairns; he takes Walker as a representative of the second, and Marshall and Sorley as supporting the last. In his fifth and final chapter he applies his theory of wages to the eight-hour movement, trades-unionism, profit-sharing, etc.

this work Dr. Densmore makes a bold effort to shatter all existing and accepted systems of dietary, and ominously warns his readers of the dangers of seeking the assistance of the medical profession in cases of sickness. The book is divided into three parts: How to Doctor, How to Get Well and Keep Well, and The Natural Food of Man. In the first chapter of Part I the author gives an example of the process of natural healing, or, as he terms it, "Nature's engineering." He says: "A sliver becomes imbedded in the flesh—a frequent accident. . . . If the sliver is permitted to remain, Nature at once sets about a bit of engineering. First, there is pain and inflammation; then follows a formation of pus; this in due time breaks down the tissues immediately surrounding the sliver, especially toward the surface of the limb; the pus increases, breaks through, runs out, and sooner or later carries the sliver with it." And he claims that "these and like processes of Nature are all the healing force there is."

Further on, he asserts that the deaths of I both George Washington and President Garfield were either hastened or directly caused by the drugs of the physicians in the first instance, and in the second by the daily probing for the bullet, which, if left undisturbed, would not have been fatal. All through the early part of the work the author advances argument after argument against the uses of drugs for healing purposes, and in the fifth chapter he makes the announcement that, although surgery can be classed as a science, "medicine is not a science; it is empiricism founded on a network of blunders."

The second part of the book treats of How to Get Well and Keep Well, and embraces a series of chapters upon the uses and abuses of certain foods and their relative values for promoting health. In the first chapter of this part, while admitting that "bread, cereals, pulses, and vegetables are the bases of the food of civilization," he denies the urgency of their forming the bases of food, and in fact distinctly states that these and all other starch foods are not beneficial to the system; and he urges the use of ripe sweet fruits in their place. This contention he bases upon the fact that starchy foods such as bread, cereals, etc., are not digested in the first stomach, but have to pass into the intestines, which they overtax during the process of digestion.

Considerable space is devoted to arguments against the use of tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcoholic beverages; and the author scathingly attacks the use, or rather the abuse of the use of opium by "orthodox physicians." In the third part are repeated his ideas upon the curative powers of Nature, and the evils of using starchy foods. In this part, also, he attacks the accepted theory that varying the diet is beneficial to the digestive organs, and advises a similar meal of meat and fruit every day. The book concludes with a number of "Conformatory Chapters," in which Dr. Densmore seeks to defend his theories.

man who is here portrayed in his public utterances and official writings was one of the leading lights of the century in the field of jurisprudence. In 184V, at the early age of twenty-five, he was made Regius Professor of Civil Law at Trinity College, Cam bridge. Three years after he betook himself