THE NEW YORK lOURNAL OF PHARMACY 



"Index Kcvvensis" and Enj^^lcr & 

 Prantl's ''Die Naturlichen Pflanzen 

 familien." In this, connection, only 

 recently a gentleman visited the library 

 seeking aid in translating an Arabic 

 medical work of some six hundred 

 years ago and we were able to place 

 in his hands Bossier's "Flora Orien- 

 talis," which gave a list of the plants 

 of the Orient with their titles in 

 Arabic, Greek and Latin. One notable 

 omission from our botanical books is 

 one that should soon be supplied — 

 that splendid work, North American 

 Flora (published by the New York 

 Botanical Garden) — which we hope 

 we will soon receive either by donation 

 or by purchase. 



In chemical books, our library is un- 

 commonly rich and that thanks to the 

 proper selection during the past few 

 decades of that type of book peculiarly 

 needed in a pharmaceutical library. A 

 marked advantage that can be found 

 in the classical books on chemistry is 

 that phase as yet not sufficiently shown 

 in books on pharmacy ; sufficiently vol- 

 uminous bibliographies. A book on sci- 

 ence to be of the utmost value should 

 not only present succinct facts, but 

 should also refer the reader to volume 

 and page of the journal where the 

 original communication is found. Of 

 course, such information is not usually 

 required by the casual reader, but it 

 need not necessarily enlarge the book 

 beyond comfortable limits, and when 

 there, is of utmost value to those read- 

 ers who wish to go deeply into the 

 subject. And pharmaceutical books — 

 even such classics as the Real-Enzy- 

 clopaedie and the dispensatories are 

 considerably behind the average au- 

 thoritative book on chemistry or on 



pharmacognosy in the matter of ade- 

 (juate and systematic l)ibliography. 

 Notable among the American works 

 furnishing fine bibliographies are the 

 Bulletins of the Lloyd library, of which 

 No. i8 on the history of official drugs 

 is a masterpiece of bibliographical re- 

 search. 



Discussion of the chemical books of 

 our library will therefore consist largely 

 in stating those source books from which 

 the inquirer should start his hunt. 

 Without question, the master books on 

 chemistry from the standpoint of 

 proper bibliography are Gmelin-Kraut- 

 Friedheim which give practically 

 every reference in inorganic chemistry 

 that is worth while, and Beilstein 

 which does the same service to organic 

 chemistry. Our library also has both 

 Dammar and Al)egg who discusses in- 

 organic chemistry, though not quite as 

 fully as Gmelin-Kraut ; and in Engli.sh 

 we have Roscoe & Schorlemmer, 

 Watts' Dictionary and Thorpe's Dic- 

 tionary, although not in the latest 

 edition. Moreover, the bibliographies 

 of these English books leave much to 

 be desired. 



All these works are to chemistry 

 what the Century Dictionary is to the 

 English language, and like the Century 

 these books are primarily works of 

 general reference and for ultimate de- 

 tails the searcher is supposed to con- 

 sult the special books on the several 

 branches of chemistry. In these, our 

 library is particularly good and the 

 ones mentioned below are those which 

 appeal not merely because of excel- 

 lency of contents but also because of 

 their fine bibliographies. 



Thus we have Gildermeister-Hoff- 

 mann "Die Aetherische Oele," Pictet- 



