of comparatively recent date, and are nearly fresh, for the reason that the salts deposited when the Quaternary lakes evaporated were buried or absorbed by the underlying clays and marls. Mr. Russell's monograph is an attempt to study out the history of Lake Lahontan, so far as the details of it can be deduced from the geological evidences. It considers the "Physiography of the Lahontan Basin," the physical and chemical and life (animals and plants) history of the lake; the climate of the Quaternary period; the geological age of the lake; and the "Post-Lahontan Orographic Movement."
The Conflict of East and West in Egypt. By John Eliot Bowen, Ph. D. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 204. Price, $1.25.
This essay was prepared originally as a dissertation preparatory to receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Columbia College. The matter of it is of public interest, and, in the shaping which the author has given it, is presented in a form to make accessible to the public and to inform it concerning a subject respecting which its present knowledge is rather vague. The subject concerns the condition of affairs in Egypt, and how they came to be in that condition, together with the relations of the powers to the questions at issue. Of these matters, Mr. Bowen gives a concise, intelligible account, beginning with the inception of the Suez Canal enterprise in 1854, and following the events and negotiations through the reigns of Said, Ismail, and Tewfik. It presents M. de Lesseps's struggles to get the Suez Canal under way and construct it, and England's efforts to balk the work because it was a French one; the brilliant but reckless career of Ismail, his enterprising views and extravagant speculations, ending in his fall; the attempts, under Tewfik, to remedy the distress which Ismail had brought on; the rebellion of Arabi and the raid of the Mahdi, with Gordon's unfortunate career. England's record, through all these events, has been rather spotted, but Mr. Bowen concludes that "England, in spite of all her mistakes, has had a beneficent influence on Egypt," and that the hope of the country hangs largely on its independence of Turkey being assured.
The Poison Problem. By Felix L. Oswald, M. D. New York: D. Appleton & Co, Pp. 138. Price, 75 cents.
In this little volume, Dr. Oswald, than whom no writer is braver, more pungent upon occasion, or more readable, discusses the cause and cure of intemperance. In the beginning he calls attention to the extent and enormity to which the consumption of liquors has grown, and the power the liquor-traffic has acquired, which are really facts to be alarmed about. The argument is based upon the assumption, which is maintained by many considerations, that alcohol is a poison without any beneficial qualities to the system, the appetite for which, when once acquired, grows, and can not be mitigated by any measures of mere temperance, or by compromises. No moral or social evil is greater than those to which it conduces. "Judging from secular standpointes," says Dr. Oswald, "we should be inclined to think that alcohol is doing more mischief in a single year than obscene literature has done in a century. . . . And, unhappily, it also involves the loss of self-respect, and thus destroys the basis on which the advocate of appeals to the moral instinct would found his plan of salvation. The power of moral resistance is weakened with every repetition of the poison-dose, and we might as well besiege a bedridden consumptive with appeals to resume his place at the head of an afflicted family." The banishment of alcohol from the sick-room, as well as from the banquet-hall, is demanded. "Thousands of topers owe their ruin to a prescription of 'tonic bitters.' . . . Taught by the logic of such experiences, the friends of reform will at last recognize the truth that the 'temperate' use of alcohol is but the first stage of a progressive and shame-proof disease, and that, moderation and repudiation failing, we must direct our blows at the root of the upas-tree, and adopt the motto of 'eradication.' Truce means defeat in the struggle against an evil that will reproduce its seed from the basis of any compromise." For remedies against the spread of the alcohol-habit, the author proposes instruction respecting the physiological effects of the drug, such as is provided for in the school systems of several States; proscription of its use under all circumstances; the
