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 1920 SHORT NOTICES 157 of Night Thoughts. Considerable space is devoted to the development of the medical services of the army and navy, and the evils of a divided and incompetent medical control are illustrated by the story of Walcheren. The work concludes with an account of the illnesses and treatment of distin- guished men of the period, including the king. Fox, Pitt, and Dr. Johnson. Almost any information about Dr. Johnson is interesting, but perhaps the detailed account of the post-mortem examination of his body is somewhat out of place in a work appealing to the general public, which may be read with pleasure by all students of the history of medicine. A. Mr. G. W. Scholefield has written an excellent volume on The Pacific ; its Pctst and Future, and the Policy of the Great Powers from the Eighteenth Century (London : John Murray, 1919). There are numerous books on the subject of the Pacific and its problems, but in none will be found so careful and discriminating an account of the past history as is here given. It is based mainly on the British parliamentary papers, and, though the author has strong views, he shows himself commendably free from exaggeration or prejudice. Whatever we may think of Australasian preten- sions that the Pacific should have been held in the nineteenth century as a British preserve, Mr. Scholefield proves to the hilt that the failure of the home government to take the colonies into their confidence and to explain to them the European situation, together with the misunderstand- ings and hesitations of Lord Granville and Lord Derby, led to a situation which a little more frankness and courage might have avoided. However, all this, it may be hoped, belongs now to a dead past ; though it has an abiding moral for the intelligent reader. An occasional slip or misprint may be corrected in another edition. The economist List figures as Liszt ; Mr. Edward Stanhope seems to be meant under the title Earl Stanhope ; and Commodore Perry appears as Commodore Parry. Again, the joint occupation of the Oregon territory was not, as Mr. Scholefield states, under the terms of the Treaty of Ghent, but under the terms of the subsequent convention of 1818. But when the author is touching ground familiar to him, there can be no question as to his thorough accuracy. H. E. E. Professor Georges Weill's Histoire des Etats-Unis de 1787 a 1917 (Paris : Alcan, 1919) is intended for the general reader, and for this reason does not call for a long notice in this Review. As the first French book dealing with American history during the period, it has, however, a real claim to note, and it is a very apt example of the labours of the Franco-American com- mittee, which is responsible for the publication. It is a popular narrative, the most distinctive judgement expressed being a depreciation of Hamilton as ' a true Englishman and admirer of aristocracy ', to the advantage of Jefferson, ' a disciple of France '. This view is unfamiliar in these days. G. B. H. In The West Florida Controversy, 1798-1813, a study in American Diplomacy (Baltimore : Johns Hopkins Press, 1918) Mr. Isaac Joslin Cox unravels the tangled skein of events which ended in the acquisition of