ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BEAUTY AND HEALTH

Little sachet or yogurt; this is a medical encyclopedia (listings in succession: arthritis, artificial nails, aspirin, asthma) which presumably justifies the price. Signorina Morini is a fearless generalizer: urticaria or hives can be caused by who-knows-what? although she does not mention what used to be called ""nerves"" any more than she does the frequent psychogenic etiology of psoriasis. She writes about anything but not everything--thus abortion, acerola (Barbados cherries), ginseng tea, girdles, or, just to take you unaware, jejunoileostomy, that dangerous intestinal bypass for the hopelessly obese. Whereas she is guarded here, she seems permissive about the chemical peel which even if ""limited"" in usefulness has ""astonishing"" results or the as yet rather dubious electrosleep technique. Occasionally she's ridiculous: ""One way of dealing with chronic backache is to turn the chronic into an acute condition, as it is easier for the body to heal an acute condition. . . ."" If you have a backache, you'd do well to cross your fingers and not cross your legs. If you decide to buy a book like this, you'd do well to find someone with more authority who knows a little more about less.