The chemistry of food and nutrition: By Henry C. Sherman, Ph.D. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1918. Second edition, rewritten and enlarged, 431 pages, contents and index, illustrations, tables, 12mo. Price, $2

✍ Scribed by Henry Leffmann

• Book ID: 104121759
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1918
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 280 KB
• Volume: 186
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/s0016-0032(18)90235-8

✦ Synopsis

Sherman's extended and valuable contributions to our knowledge of food chemistry guarantee that this work will be an acceptable addition to the literature of that subject, and careful reading confirms this. The book contains a large amount of information, clearly and accurately expressed. It is not written as a popular essay, for the statements are mostly presented in the elaborate form and technical language of the well-developed science.

A large amount of statistical information is given in the form of tables. After presenting the general chemistry and nutritive relations of the three main types of food a chapter is devoted to enzymes and digestive processes, then follow detailed discussions of the problems of metabolism and energy requirements. The value of inorganic substances, especially iron compounds, in the diet is considered, after which over one hundred pages are devoted to practical applications of the principles set forth in the earlier part of the work. An appendix on the nomenclature and classification of proteins and one on the composition of foods close the book.

No mention is made of the dietetic relations of the accessory foods. It would have been interesting to hear Dr. Sherman's summary of the existing trustworthy data concerning the effects of alcohol, tea, coffee and cacao, but in a work of this kind the author usually finds it necessary to exclude certain incidental topics.

Notwithstanding the great amount of information in the work, the excellent style in which it is written and the care that has been taken to be