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Diet and bodily constitution
407
Book Reviews
DIET AND BODILY CONSTITUTION. Ciba Foundation Study Group No. 17. Edited by G. E. W. WOL~TENHOLME and MAEVEO’CONNOR. Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1964. 120 pp. Indexed. Price $2.95. a transcription of the deliberations of Ciba Foundation Study Group, No. 17, which met in August 1963. Professor R. A. McCance was chairman, and the symposium was dedicated to Professor J. F. Brock. The book centers around a discussion of the effect of diet on bodily constitution in the human. By constitution is meant the anatomic, metabolic, mental and emotional make-up of an individual. If one assesses the symposium in terms of the concepts most relevant to an understanding of the basic mechanisms and to the effect of diet in bodily constitution, there are really only two papers which are cogent. THE BOOK is
The more important paper is presented by Morris H. Ross on “Nutrition, Disease, and Length of Life.” Although the animal studied is the rat, some very enlightening work is presented which focuses on the specific problem at hand, i.e. the effect of certain diets on cell size and number, and enzymatic content of the liver. The other paper, by E. M. Widdowson, reviews extensive work done by Widdowson and McCance on theeffect of “Early Nutrition and Later Development.” The work delineates theeffect of diet inrats, cockerels, and pigs, on total growth and growth of organs such as liver, brain, muscle, and bone. Data are presented concerning the effect of malnutrition and the effect of refeeding. Other papers are of interest but less relevant. Scrimshaw discussed “Nutrition, Stress and The Effect of Humans.” Specifically infections, traumatic and psychological stresses were analyzed as they related to poor nutritional status.The mechanisms were of a rather general nature, however, with a R. Passmore discussed “Carbohydrates, the number of speculative relationships introduced. Cinderella of Nutrition” and G. F. M. Russell discussed “Psvcholoaical Factors in the Control of Food Intake.” One other paper deserves comment because of the rather large section of the book which it occupies. This is the article by Tanner on time relationships during growth. Tanner presents a large number of anthropological measurements from which he draws unwarranted conclusions on the regulation of size and growth in terms of “concentration of a hypothetical substance.” The analogy, while colorful, does not lead us any further toward understanding the basic mechanisms involved. The anthropological measurements are very good, but how Tanner can expect to draw valid conclusions which concern the internal metabolic alteration of growth from them is unclear. It is a little like concluding how a building is built by describing the over-all dimension of it. DONALD
ELLIOTT
Book Reviews
DIET AND BODILY CONSTITUTION. Ciba Foundation Study Group No. 17. Edited by G. E. W. WOL~TENHOLME and MAEVEO’CONNOR. Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1964. 120 pp. Indexed. Price $2.95. a transcription of the deliberations of Ciba Foundation Study Group, No. 17, which met in August 1963. Professor R. A. McCance was chairman, and the symposium was dedicated to Professor J. F. Brock. The book centers around a discussion of the effect of diet on bodily constitution in the human. By constitution is meant the anatomic, metabolic, mental and emotional make-up of an individual. If one assesses the symposium in terms of the concepts most relevant to an understanding of the basic mechanisms and to the effect of diet in bodily constitution, there are really only two papers which are cogent. THE BOOK is
The more important paper is presented by Morris H. Ross on “Nutrition, Disease, and Length of Life.” Although the animal studied is the rat, some very enlightening work is presented which focuses on the specific problem at hand, i.e. the effect of certain diets on cell size and number, and enzymatic content of the liver. The other paper, by E. M. Widdowson, reviews extensive work done by Widdowson and McCance on theeffect of “Early Nutrition and Later Development.” The work delineates theeffect of diet inrats, cockerels, and pigs, on total growth and growth of organs such as liver, brain, muscle, and bone. Data are presented concerning the effect of malnutrition and the effect of refeeding. Other papers are of interest but less relevant. Scrimshaw discussed “Nutrition, Stress and The Effect of Humans.” Specifically infections, traumatic and psychological stresses were analyzed as they related to poor nutritional status.The mechanisms were of a rather general nature, however, with a R. Passmore discussed “Carbohydrates, the number of speculative relationships introduced. Cinderella of Nutrition” and G. F. M. Russell discussed “Psvcholoaical Factors in the Control of Food Intake.” One other paper deserves comment because of the rather large section of the book which it occupies. This is the article by Tanner on time relationships during growth. Tanner presents a large number of anthropological measurements from which he draws unwarranted conclusions on the regulation of size and growth in terms of “concentration of a hypothetical substance.” The analogy, while colorful, does not lead us any further toward understanding the basic mechanisms involved. The anthropological measurements are very good, but how Tanner can expect to draw valid conclusions which concern the internal metabolic alteration of growth from them is unclear. It is a little like concluding how a building is built by describing the over-all dimension of it. DONALD
ELLIOTT