The arraignment of beer and light wines is also interesting. Mr. Thompson declares that to think either of these beverages the cure for drunkenness is unscientific to a degree. France remained sober only so long as she was poor. "It was in my horoscope," says the writer, "to watch for twenty years the growth of the alcoholic habit in France. I saw the nation weary of the too feeble intoxicant of wine and take to strong drink." Mr. Thompson hopes that no one on this side of the water will be deceived by the statements of the California viticulturists, who tell us that California can become a second France in vine culture if only the American people will make markets for its wares by becoming drinkers of wine. There is a chapter on adulteration that is certainly enough to make a man never drink another drop, and then the author, after much more serious and brilliant matter, compilations from here and there, declares that the nation should take the whole bad business into its hands; and then - when the hour strikes - strangle it by national prohibition. It is a brilliant little book, not deep with first-hand scientific research but full of good sense and good things, and an anomaly among its kind, for most works on alcohol are cold science or hot hysteria. This moves among its drab or hectic brothers like a fashionably dressed woman, all epigram, entirely used to society. It would know how to penetrate the world of fashion, lie on the straw tables of a summer verandah or adorn the table of some dainty guest chamber. It is very urbane-and very enlightening. -The Survey, Volume 35