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In this, the heyday of the vitamin cult, when the administration of vitamins is apt to be based on rule of thumb, it is refreshing to come on a brief, inexpensive text by a professor of physiologic chemistry at Teachers' College, Columbia University, which gives in intelligible form the chemistry of the vitamins and what is known of their physiologic action. He considers the vitamins serially, with a brief historical background; he reviews their chemistry and the rationale of their clinical administration. The amount of each vitamin required by man in health and in disease and the common food sources are listed. The bizarre terminology is clarified; units of measurement are defined, and international units based on bioassay are correlated with metric weights of the crystalline vitamins. There is an excellent series of tables on the vitamin content in ordinary helpings of common foods. Particularly pertinent is the chapter on