SHORTER NOTICES.
A few years ago things were so much simpler ; every boy and every girl who was born into thiii world alive was either a little Liberal or else a little Conservative—and there we were. Nowadays we find outselves willy-nilly either Socialists or Democrats, Reparationists or Nihilists . . . and Prohibition- ists or Anti-Prohibitionists. Whether we belong to those who would like to see Dionysus as extinct as Deinosauros, or to those who believe in making glad their hearts with wine (or at any rate in allowing others to do so, should they wish), it behoves us to remember that alcohol is an organic body with a known chemical formula, a body whose action on the living organism has been subjected to the close study of exact scientists. The Physiologist, the Pathologist, the Pharmacolo- gist, the Neurologist, the Alienist and the Biometrist have each investigated alcohol in the light of their particular branch of science. In The Action of Alcohol on Man we are presented with a work which deals with its subject compre- hensively from a purely scientific, and hence impartial, standpoint. Both Prohibitionists and Anti-Prohibitionists will find therein powder and shot for their magazines, although it is interesting to note that Professor Starling and the other distinguished scientists who have contributed essays to this book appear to regard total Prohibition with disfavour. There are many laymen who opine that a purely scientific treatise must necessarily be dull ; the book under review is about as dull as sparkling champagne.
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