Fighting Modern Evils With Old Rare Books

by Stephen J. Gertz

MILLER, Fred S. Fighting Modern Evils That Destroy Our Homes
- A Startling Exposure of the Snares and Pitfals of the Social World
- Vividly Depicting How Homes Are Wrecked and Souls Destroyed
Through Wiles and Trickery of Mystic Cults.
N.P. [U.S. of Canada]: n.p. [the author], n.d. [c. 1913].

In the modern world each footfall is an opportunity to drop into an abyss and snowshoes won't prevent you from sinking into perdition. There is, however, a rich corpus of vintage self-help, instructional and inspirational literature to keep you from drowning in a pool of damnation.

Here's a small selection, from Old New Age, the latest catalog from David Mason Rare Books.

KRESS, Daniel H. The Cigarette.
As a Physician Sees It.
Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publ., [c. 1932].

Modern Evil #1: Cigarettes.

Pacific Press Publishers of Mountain View, California was a Seventh Day Adventist venture dedicated to educational titles on activities that lead to the road to ruin. Get your kicks on Route 666 and experience Hell Before Death.

Here, inside the Los Angeles Coliseum during the 1932 Olympic Games, the U.S. track team doc examines a runner prior to race time. Judging by the expression on the Olympian's face, he's just been diagnosed with Stage-3 lung cancer and congestive heart failure. Will he make it to the finish line?

Not too long after this pamphlet appeared, Big Tobacco would recruit doctors real or otherwise to endorse their products in advertisements, M.D.s who, apparently, had their fingers crossed when taking the Hippocratic Oath.

HORN, M[ildred]. A. Mother and Daughter.
A Digest for Women and Growing Girls,
Which Completely Covers the Field of Sex Hygiene.
Toronto: Canadian Hygienic Products Ltd, n.d. [c. 1940s].

Modern Evil #2: Reckless Teen Behavior.

Young girls - you know who you are - have you no shame? Want to find a good husband? Have children? Lead a long, wholesome life? Listen to your mother! She'll teach you all about the science of keeping clean, healthy, and happy! You'll be miserable but so what? Fun is over-rated.

HALE, Beatrice Forbes Robertson. What Women Want.
An Interpretation of the Feminist Movement.
New York: Frederick Stokes, (1914).

Modern Evil #3: Feminism.

Damned suffragettes were tearing the social fabric in America and England, the contemporary social fabric an easily stained synthetic silk with rough threads; good riddance. 

Actress, suffragist, prolific author and lecturer Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale (1883-1967), niece of J. Forbes Robertson,  the famed London actor and theater manager, was an ardent feminist who married young Wall Street lawyer Swinburne Hale in 1910. He was "won by her speeches…Young attorney began ardent courtship after hearing her espouse woman's cause" (NY Times, April 29, 1910)

"Miss Forbes-Robertson will not give up the stage nor abate her efforts on behalf of the woman suffrage cause after her marriage to Mr. Hale. She has been prominently connected with the campaign for woman suffrage in both England and in this country, where she has been of large service through her platform eloquence.

"She is a finished speaker, and though she has never become associated with the extreme militant suffragettes closely enough to accomplish arrest, she has done a great deal of platform work here and abroad" (Ibid).

The Hales divorced in 1920 and Beatrice returned home to England but continued to visit the United States and remained fully engaged in the women's rights movement.

Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale was, it seems, a bit naive about her sisters in the struggle. Margaret Sanger, in The Woman Rebel,  her law-challenging journal, wrote:

"Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale said at a debate on feminism that she knew of only two feminists who advocated free love and unmarried motherhood, and that they were not suffragists, but anarchists. What a limited knowledge of women Mrs. Hale has! Perhaps after all self respect and morality are confined to the anarchist women!"

What Women Want is a very rare book with only a handful of copies in institutional holdings worldwide. Read the full text here.

VOM BRUCH, Harry W. The Carnival of Death.
Or the Modern Dance and Other Amusements.
Mont Morris, IL: Kable Brothers Co., n.d. [c. late 1910s].

Modern Evil #4: Dancing.

Dancing had been viewed as sinful as far back as the eighteenth century but with the influx of single girls into the urban workforce the perils of the dance hall did a grand jeté into the evangelical congregation with jeremiads aplenty.

The tacit terpsichorean culprit in Carnival of Death is, I suspect, the Black Bottom, which originated in New Orleans in the first decade of the 20th century. Its roots in African-American culture made it Public Enemy #1 amongst the decline of the West set.

Am I alone in mourning the passing of dances with names? The Black Bottom, Charleston, Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Mambo. Cha-Cha, Merengue, Rhumba, Bossa Nova, the Swim, the Frug, the Shing-a-ling, the Monkey, the Mashed Potatoes, Watusi, Hully-Gully, the Shake, the Twist, the Funky Chicken, Pony, the Loco-motion, the Freddy,  the Bump, the Hustle, Macarena - even those dreaded of all social-banquet dances, the Hokey-Pokey and the Bunny Hop: quick, what's the name of the latest dance of 2012-2013? The Whatever.

ELLESBY, James. A Caution Against Ill Company:
Or, a Discourse Shewing the Danger of
Conversing Familiarly With Bad Men.
London: F.C. & J. Rivington, 1812.
Tenth edition.

Modern Evil #5: Bad Men.

Reverend James Ellesby, author of The Sick Christian's Companion (1729) -  no smirking, please; the book is a selection of prayers to endure illness, not a guide for Christians of dubious turn of mind - here cautions against females engaging in casual social intercourse with bad men; it can lead to that other casual intercourse, you know, the one that leads to the streets. From hello to Hell is only one lost virtuous vowel away.

Come on, gals, 'fess-up. Bad men are catnip! This is why, only hours after my Bar Mitzvah, I immediately began riding Harleys without a license, using bad language, smoking, playing pool, hanging-out on street corners, staying up past my bedtime, and generally flouting authority so egregiously that I was routinely remanded by the court to my room without supper. In short, I became a chicklette-magnet, 11 and 12-year old vampettes vying for the attention of this older, thirteen year old man so incredibly wise, so astonishingly smart, so breathtakingly handsome, so overweeningly conceited, and desperate to become an excommunicated Boy Scout but too milquetoast for misdemeanors, much less felonies.

"He's irresistible. He treats me like crap. I'm in love!"

HARRIS, Rev. W.S.. Hell Before Death.
With Illustrations by Paul Krafft.
N.P.: (Luther Minter): n.d. [c. 1908].
By Subscription Only.

Modern Evil #6: Capitalism.

Hell Before Death author, Rev. W.S. Harris, "who has devoted many years in securing better conditions for humanity," writes:

"Under the whip of monopolistic slavemasters, the host of common people, generally known as laborers, are getting deeper into bondage…This movement on the part of Labor was perhaps the most fortunate thing that could have happened; for, if capitalistic oppression had continued unchecked for a few decades more, by this time, the nation would be owned and controlled by a few great moguls, and the great bulk of humanity would be reduced to a new type of slavery even more abject than the kind under which we now suffer" (from the Preface. Full text of Hell Before Death here).

Sure glad that didn't happen.

SOUTHARD, R.E. Problems of Decency.
(St. Louis): The Queen's Work, n.d. [c. 1949].

Modern Evil #7: Indecency.

The Catholic University of America library has 742 publications, pamphlets and magazines from The Queen's Work, a Jesuit publishing house based in St. Louis and the pioneer mass circulation magazine to popularize the Catholic faith.

It was founded and edited by Daniel Aloysius Lord, S.J. (1888-1955), a popular American Catholic writer. Lord became national director of the Sodality of Our Lady in 1926, also serving as editor of its publication, The Queen's Work magazine. He stepped down from editorship in 1948, but continued to write for the magazine for the remainder of his life, producing more than 500 pamphlets, plays, and songs.

In 1927, he served as a consultant to Cecil B. DeMille for his silent film, King of Kings. The advent of talkies alarmed him. "Silent smut had been bad," he would write in his autobiography, Played by Ear. "Vocal smut cried to the censors for vengeance."

In 1929, he began work on Hollywood's Production Code. "Here was a chance," he wrote, "to read morality and decency into mass recreation." He aimed "to tie the Ten Commandments in with the newest and most widespread form of entertainment," aspiring to an ecumenical standard of decency, so that "the follower of any religion, or any man of decent feeling and conviction, would read it and instantly agree."

In 1930, Lord's draft of the Code was accepted by Will H. Hays and promulgated to the studios with only minor changes, but it lacked an enforcement mechanism, and Lord came to consider it a failure. It was only with the mid-1934 advent of the Production Code Administration headed by Joseph Breen that the Code became the law of Hollywood for more than twenty-five years.

Clean up the movies? Sanitized for your protection? Mission accomplished!

GAYNOR, R. Leo. The Mysteries of Luck,
Together With Invaluable Information on the Occult
Science of Astrology, Numerology, Graphology, etc.
N.P. [Canada?}: W.K. Buckley, n.d. [ c. 1936].

All the self-help and inspirational books in the world will not, of course, be of any value whatsoever unless Lady Luck takes a liken' to ya' and makes it all better. But don't tell Dr. Phil.

__________

Images courtesy of David Mason Rare Books, currently offering these titles, with our thanks.
__________
__________

The Original Guide To Health and Wellness, From Iraq

By Stephen J. Gertz

In 1531, the first printed edition of what had originally been an eleventh century Arabic guide to good health was published.

Purification [enema].

The book, Tacuini Sanitatis (Tables of Health, i.e. Health Maintenance), in Latin, had been circulating in manuscript copies during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, providing encyclopedic counsel on health, hygiene, and well-being.

Constipation. Sexual Intercourse. Sperm.

Originally written by ibn Butlan, a Christian physician born in Baghdad (d. 1068) also known as Elluchasem Elimithar, the book lays out the six elements necessary for good health and avoiding stress: food and drink; air and climate; activity and rest; sleep and wakefulness, the secretion and excretion of humors; and states of mind, i.e. the emotions. Illness, according to ibn Butlan, was the result of an imbalance of these elements. A life lived in harmony with nature was the cure for what ailed you.

Health Building. Drunkenness.  Fires.

Sexual activity was considered an essential part of a well-balanced life, and ibn Butlan offers advice, i.e. eating the eyes of animals will increase sperm count (though nausea is noted as a potential side effect).

 

The healing properties of various plants are listed. Onions, for example, will soften the character, act as a diuretic, facilitate sexual intercourse, and sharpen vision. The abuse of lettuce, however, is harmful to sexual activity. Beyond over-consumption, however, it is not clear what constitutes abuse of lettuce,  though extreme foodies may consider anything more than a splash of balsamic vinegar to be a capital offense leading to depressed libido, if not appetite.

Drunkenness. Vomiting.

The book, known as Taqwim al-Sihha in Arabic, was first translated into Latin, 1258-1266, by order of Manfred, King of Sicily. Illustrated manuscript editions began to appear in the late fourteenth century. The first printed edition was published in Strasbourg in 1531 bearing woodcuts that, in many cases, are models of candor, matter-of-factly depicting the honest realities of our basic animal functions and activities.

Radish. Sleep. Conversation.

Tacuini Sanitatis was, until the seventeenth century brought rationalism to the study of science and medicine, the most popular guide to health and wellness among the European lay readership.

To speak in form. Vigilance.

Though fairly represented in library holdings worldwide the book is scarce in the marketplace, with only two copies coming to auction within the last thirty-seven years. The most recent, a complete copy in a modern binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, sold at Sotheby's May 7, 2009 for £11,000 ($17,710).

A defective copy, disbound and lacking the final two signatures, is being offered at Bloomsbury-London's Antiquarian Books: The Property of a Collector, Part I, sale Wednesday, April 4, 2012, lot 343. It is estimated to sell for £1000 - £1500 ($1600 - $2400). 

__________

ELIMITHAR (Elluchasem) aka Ibn Butlan, Abul Hasan al Muchtar ibn Botlan - Abu Ali Yahya ibn Isa ibn Guzlah al Baghdadi. Tacuini Sanitatis. Elluchasem Elimithar medici de Baldath, de sex rebus non naturalibus, earum naturis, operationibus, & rectificationibus, publico omnium usui, conseruandæ sanitatis, recens exarati. : Albengnefit De uirtutibus medicinarum, & ciborum. Iac. Alkindus De rerum gradibus. Argentorati (Strasbourg): Apud Ioannem Schottum Librarium, 1531.

Editio princeps. Folio. 163, [9] pp. Title page and text in red and black. Woodcut panel strips at foot of leaves.

Adams I11. Wellcome I, 1996. BL German Books, p. 365. Durling 2520 & 4774. Heirs to Hippocrates 69. Vicaire 323. Waller 2740.

__________

Images courtesy of Bloomsbury, with our thanks.
__________
__________

The Oral Respirator of 1851: C'mon, Peeps, Let's Breathe Right!

by Stephen J. Gertz

Clockwise, from upper left: The Hand Oral Respirator, held in the hand and applied to the mouth; The Orinasal Respirator
for the Mouth and Nostrils, chiefly used at night to remove cough
and promote sleep; The Fixed Oral Respirator for the mouth only;
The Nasal Respirator for the Nose only, of especial value for use at
night and in sleep. This instrument sits with much comfort on the Nose.

For the mid-19th century huddled masses yearning to breathe free (at nominal cost) this scarce and slim pamphlet advertises Mr. Jeffreys several respiration devices to be worn or held against the mouth. Though this leaflet appears to be a typical “quack” cure promotion, the device invented by Jeffreys was a legitimate medical instrument patented in Great Britain in 1836 (No. 10,287) and was the prototype for respirators still manufactured today.

Jeffreys’ respirators were “constructed on scientific principles, and designed to facilitate respiration by supplying to the air passages and lungs, when in a delicate or irritable state, air fresh and pure, but rendered so genial as to be soothing to them, however cold, foggy, and irritating the atmosphere might be,” thus providing relief to sufferers of a variety of respiratory ailments.

Within its pages are reprints of favorable notices for the Jeffrey respirators from standard medical journals, including Lancet (1851) and Medico-Chirurgical Review (1840). A price list at the back mentions lower-priced models for the Working Classes (less air, less filling?) and availability at no charge to the indigent (no air; the poor inhale the wealthy class's exhalations and make do).

Julius Jeffreys (1801-1877) was raised in India, studied medicine in Edinburgh and London and served as surgeon for the British East India Company in India. 

When he originally arrived in England from India in 1835, "Julius was distressed to find his now-widowed sister, Harriett, suffering from tuberculosis, and he was shocked by the general prevalence of lung diseases in England. In a time before there were medications to treat these ailments, mortality data from the period shows that, except during epidemics, the most common cause of death was lung afflictions.

"Julius invented a mask, which he called a 'Respirator." The mask worked by capturing moisture and warmth in exhaled air in a grid of fine metal wires. Inhaled air then was warmed and moistened as it passed through the same metal grid, providing relief to sufferers of lung diseases. The invention was patented and received patent number 10287, in 1836. The Respirator became very popular, and was mentioned in the literature of the day, including in the writings of Elizabeth Gaskell, William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens" (Wikipedia, in a well-referenced article).

Jeffreys was much interested in the relationship between climate and health and developed an early air conditioning system as well as heat-resistant clothing and headgear; he contributed to development of the Pith helmet widely used by British troops in tropical climes. 

Pith helmets were later used by American film comedians on the Road to Zanzibar. Readers will recognize the alluring anthropomorphic plant at center from L'Empire des légumes (The Empire of the Vegetables) by Amédée Varin, recently discussed here on Booktryst).

For the record, a pithy factoid: the helmets were made of the cork-like pith from the sola, Aeschynomene aspera, an Indian swamp plant, or A. paludosa, or a similar plant).

Jeffreys brought his ideas together in an 1858 book, The British Army in India: Its Preservation by an Appropriate Clothing, Housing, Locating, Recreative Employment, and Hopeful Encouragement of the Troops. Jeffreys was elected to various learned societies and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society.

The OED dates the word “respirator” from 1836, the year of Jeffreys’ patent.

OCLC/KVK locate only copy, at the Wellcome Library.

Better snap up this little rarity lickety-split in time for the next SARS outbreak or the End of Days (recently postponed but sure to be rescheduled, TBA). Then we can all walk around (or sleep) wearing one of the modern variations, what appears to be a terrestrial snorkel for sidewalk skin-diving - or a very weird sex-toy:

Image courtesy of MedSupplies101.

Want to get through the next avian flu epidemic, catarrh crisis, or HAZMAT hell fashionably but not all by yourself? Try his n' hers respirators. After all, the couple that resides together respires together.

Image courtesy of Deutsch-iStockPhoto.

Mr. Jeffreys is now rolling in his grave, wishing he'd thought of it.
__________

The Respirator for All Affections Attended With Irritation in the Air Passages as Colds, Cough, Sore Throat, Asthma, Consumption &c. [London]: J. & I. Tirebuck, Machine Printers and Lithographers, [1851?]. Quarto. 8 pp. Caption title, illustrations of the devices, including “the oral respirator as worn by Ladies and Gentlemen.” Modern cloth.

__________

Book image courtesy of James Eaton of Alastor Rare Books, with our thanks.
__________
__________

Diet Books: A Millenium of Advice Unheeded

by Cokie Anderson

15th century manuscript of Tacuinum Sanitatis
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris

Every year, as January 1 approaches and the excesses of the holiday season begin to catch up with us, people everywhere begin thinking about their health. We resolve to go on a diet and to join a gym, firmly resolved (for a few weeks anyway) to whip ourselves into shape. For assistance with this endeavor, and perennially hopeful that there is some secret, easy way (The 4-hour Body!) to lose weight and stay in shape, we purchase millions of dollars worth of "healthy lifestyle" books. This is not a new phenomenon: people have been purchasing such books for nearly 1,000 years, and have been ignoring their basic advice--SPOILER ALERT! Eat less, exercise more--for just as long.

Medieval Exercise Regime. And you though Pilates was tough.

One of the earliest works to focus on the healthy lifestyle was the Taqwîm al-sihhah (Almanac of Health) by the 11th century Iraqi physician and Christian monk Ibn Butlan (died ca. 1038). One of the few upsides of the Crusades was the introduction into Western Europe of medical and scientific knowledge from Arab and Islamic scholars, which augmented considerably the knowledge handed down from the Greeks Galen and Hippocrates. The Tacuinum Sanitatis Medicina, as it was titled in Latin, was one of the most popular non-religious manuscript works. The wealthy, then as ever, had the means and the leisure to seek ways of preserving their life and health; peasants did lots of physical labor and could only afford to eat vegetables, so those lucky devils had no weight-gain worries. The upper classes were quite willing to spend large sums on illustrated manuscripts that could serve as the guide to a longer and more vigorous life.




Tacuinum Sanitatis explains and illustrates the six things necessary for good health, as outlined in its introduction: "treatment of the air which touches the heart," "right employment of food and drink," "right employment of motion and rest," "protection of the body from too much sleep and from sleeplessness," "the right ways to increase and to constrict the flow of humours," and "the right training of one's own personality being moderate in joy, hatred, fear and anguish." In other words, moderation in all things.



More than 200 appealing and lively illustrations show men and women cultivating and harvesting food, tending and slaughtering livestock, hunting, making wool and linen clothes, dancing, and sleeping. The description beneath each picture gives the qualities and benefits of the item or practice, as well as any potential harmful side effects and the appropriate remedy for these. For example, drunkenness is cited for its helpful quality of forgetting one's cares and relieving pain, with vomiting (depicted in the following miniature) given as the remedy for any related excess.

1538 print edition of Tacuinum Sanitatis from St. John's College, Cambridge

With the introduction of printing, Tacuinum Sanitatis was available to a wider audience, with woodcuts replacing the hand-painted miniatures. As one can see from the examples below, the medieval audience lacked our modern sqeamishness about bodily functions. The editio princeps (first printing) appeared in 1531, and the book enjoyed continued popularity through the remainder of the century.

TMI, thankyouverymuch

A humanist guide to good health was produced in the mid-16th century, by the Englishman Sir Thomas Elyot. His Castell of Helth "was a popular, sensible treatise on healthful living, with sound and practical advice on the recognition of the commoner symptoms of disease, as well as what to do about them." It provides the reader with suggestions for a proper diet (both to maintain health and ameliorate afflictions), discusses the curative properties of various herbs, and gives specific information about diagnoses, even down to the inspection of urine. According to Elyot, partridge is easier on the digestion than goose, and we should limit our intake of melons, cucumbers, and dates, whereas onions, eaten with meat, make it easier to sleep.



This work also has a tangential connection with the history of music because it contains one of the earliest references to the sackbutt, an early version of the trombone. The reference, however, is not to the sackbutt as an instrument for making sound, but rather as an appliance that, when blown through with sufficient energy, is capable of relieving problems of the bowels. Elyot says that "the entrayles [can be regulated] by blowynge . . . or playenge on the Shaulmes, or Sackbottes, or other lyke instrumentes whyche doo requyre moche wynde." (Sadly, we do not have an illustration demonstrating this technique). A courtier in the service of Henry VIII, Sir Thomas Elyot (1490?-1546) was a close friend of Sir Thomas More and of Thomas Cromwell, both of whom met an unhappy political fate that Elyot, though endangered, managed to avoid.

Holbein's portait of Elyot

In the 18th century, we find a contribution from the French chemist and physician Louis Lemery (1677-1743), physician to the king of France, member of the Royal Academy, and son of the famous pharmacist and chemist Nicholas Lemery. His Traité des Alimens was originally published in Paris in 1702 and first printed in English two years later as A Treatise of All Sorts of Foods, both Animal and Vegetable: Also of Drinkables. The work is divided into three sections, the first on the effects on one's constitution of various fruits, vegetables, and spices; the second on flesh, fowl, and fish; and the final section on drink. Lemery believes that what one eats is a key to health and that moderation and a balanced diet (AGAIN!) are advised (although he qualifies this by noting that our earliest ancestors were vegetarians and healthier for being so). Obviously addressing a French readership, he cautions against overindulgence in frog meat, and he comes out in favor of water and tea as beverages, while noting like a true Frenchman that wine is also healthful when taken in moderation, and the same is true of coffee and chocolate, although he warns that excesses will cause sleeplessness.

John Arbuthnot, physician and satirist

The English were not to be upstaged by the French in this area. John Arbuthnot (1667-1735), physician to Her Majesty Queen Anne, published An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments and the Choice of them, according to the Different Constitutions of Human Bodies. In which the Different Effects, Advantages, and Disadvantages of Animal and Vegetable Diet are Explained. Arbuthnot's study of diet is moderate and sensible (Again with the moderation! Sheesh!), particularly for his day. After discoursing on the mechanics of digestion, he discusses the properties of acidic and alkaline vegetable and animal food. In general, Arbuthnot recommends a light, balanced, and varied diet washed down with cold water. Alchohol, tea, and coffee must be kept to a minimum, although phlegmatic constitutions require some stimulus, and cocoa is not noxious. The author maintains that diet should be tailored to the individual constitution; a vegetarian diet, for example, is not wholesome for everyone, but works well for those inclined to be bilious.

Epicure and eccentric William Kitchiner

My favorite title in this genre--and really one of my favorites of all time--is The art of invigorating and prolonging life, by food, clothes, air, exercise, wine, sleep, &c., or, The invalid's oracle : containing peptic precepts, pointing out agreeable and effectual methods to prevent and relieve indigestion, and to regulate and strengthen the action of the stomach and bowels ... To which is added, The pleasure of making a will. Really covers all the bases and, unlike most lifestyle guides, acknowledges that despite the health diet and exercise, one day you are going to die, so you might as well face up to it and make the proper preparations. The brainchild of epicure and writer William Kitchiner (1778-1827), it contains the same basic advice as the hundreds of thousands of others produced from ancient times to the present: eat and drink in moderation, exercise regularly, guard against weight gain, and get enough sleep. Kitchiner was the author of the phenomenally popular work The Cook's Oracle, which provided inspiration to many aspiring domestic goddesses, among them Mrs. Beeton, the Victorian Martha Stewart.

In addition to chapters on "Reducing Corpulence," "Siesta," "Clothes," "Influence of Cold," "Air," "Exercise," and "Wine" (which he recommends but finds too expensive), the Invalid's Oracle, as it was popularly known, includes his Peptic Precepts, further described as "pointing out agreeable and effectual methods to prevent and relieve indigestion, and to regulate and strengthen the action of the stomach and bowels." These range from a relatively pleasant, or at least harmless, mint pill for mild indigestion to harsh and most unappealing purgatives.

An especially delightful feature of this section is the reprinted menu of a Parisian restaurant, dated 1820. Kitchener, who advocated a diet of beef, mutton, and more beef (a forerunner of the Atkins Diet), includes this as an example of the horrifying things foreigners will eat; the modern reader is struck rather by how appetizing the dishes--most of which can be found on the menu of any modern Parisian bistro--sound when compared to the relentless parade of boiled meat urged by the author. The final section accepts that all this good advice is only postponing the inevitable, and encourages the reader to put his mind at ease by making a will and getting his affairs in order. Ironically, Kitchener died suddenly and rather mysteriously the day before he was to change his own will to disinherit his "undeserving" son.

And so we face another season of resolutions and good intentions, still hoping that someday, someone will come up with something a little easier and more fun than "eat and drink in moderation, exercise, and be sure to get enough sleep." I'm holding out for "Eat Chocolate, Drink Champagne, Never Gain Weight, and Live Forever." Now that would be a bestseller.