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The introduction to this book explains that it is an effort on the part of its nine collaborating authors to synthesize the results of their work in diverse fields; these range from astronomy to subatomic physics. The result is rather more than popularized science; it is nearer philosophy in the Spencerian sense. Of the sections which have special medical interest, one in particular is likely to fascinate but irritate the medical reader. It is entitled "The Cosmic Influx and Human Life," and it summarizes the theory and assumed facts of astrology. General ignorance of the relations of physiology to meteorology makes it difficult to criticize the author's arguments in detail. The ancient vocabulary of quadratures, ascending nodes, conjunctions and oppositions at once prejudices the modern reader. But the author of this section, Duprat, does not alter his vocabulary to mollify his reader's prejudice; he rather provokes it further by citing