An attempt, as desultory as it is ambitious, to organise researches into food, nutrition and the chemicals that adulterate the foods we eat, into a form of a dictionary. Written by a man whose eccentricities rival those of Dr Johnson, the compiler of the first comprehensive English dictionary, this attempt will doubtless be an abortive tribute, but a tribute nonetheless, both to Johnson himself and to the book I would almost be tempted to rise two hours sooner than I wished to rise to read, the wonderful Larrouse Gastronomique.