VITALOGY by E.H. Ruddock (Applewood Books:...

VITALOGY by E.H. Ruddock (Applewood Books: $8.95; 128 pp., illustrated). Originally published in 1899, Ruddock’s popular health manual sold nearly 1 million copies in three decades. The four chapters Applewood has reprinted from the 1930 edition offer an odd mixture of prescience, Horatio Alger philosophy and discredited rubbish. Ruddock advises readers to exercise regularly, eat fresh fruit and vegetables and avoid tobacco: People who follow this advise may live 150-200 years, yet preserve the appearance of “those in the prime of life.” The chapters devoted to sex are even sillier: Ruddock suggests that married couples restrict sexual relations to once every “two weeks to two months” and attributes “epilepsy, softening of the brain, insanity and moral imbecility” to masturbation.