TEIE JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 

 44 



That the great value of medico-legal studies is being appreciated at the 

 present time more than heretofore is made manifest by the recent appear- 

 ance of a number of works bearing upon the borderland where medical 

 science and legal practice overlap. 



The present volume will be highly appreciated by the doctor, the lawyer 

 and the pharmacist, for the last is rapidly becoming our scientific chemical 



expert. 



The work is conveniently divided into two main parts, Part I. discussing 

 the general subject of toxicology, and Part II. gives an exhaustive treatment 

 of forensic medicine in its many aspects. 



It would manifestly be impossible to try to give any abstract of this 

 excellent work of some seven hundred pages, but some few points of special 

 interest and value suggest themselvs in the reading: 



The chapters upon toxicology are especially full, and what renders the 

 work of value especially to the physician is the full consideration of treat- 

 ment of poisons. In a work of this kind it would be manifestly impossible 

 to consider every class of toxic agent, and some of the poisons are only 

 touched upon. The recent importance given to the study of mycology causes 

 i me to wish that a little more might be said about mushroom poisoning. 



The author has shown very conclusively and truly, we think, in his chap- 

 ter upon the ptomaines and other putrefactive bodies, what great care must 

 be taken in medico-legal investigations upon poisons of this class. 



In Part II. Dr. Herold takes up that portion of the science '-'which treats 

 of the application of medical knowledge to the purposes of the law." The 

 signs of death are fully treated in chapter 1 9, and a careful account of what 

 a medico-legal autopsy should be is treated in the next chapter. Chapters 

 on identity and identification follow. Two most interesting chapters are 

 those on the technical microscopical methods of identification of animal 

 hairs and of animal bloods. This latter is exhaustively treated, and some 

 excellent tables of blood measurements are given. 



Wounds, Burns and Scalds, Forms of Violent Death, Strangulation by 

 Hanging or by Drowning, Medico-legal aspects of Electricity, Death by 

 Heat and Cold, Pregnancy, Criminal Abortion, Infanticide, Rape, Impo- 

 tence and Sterility, an- all heads of chapters filled with useful and accurate 

 information. 



The author wisely considers the medical examination of the living in its 

 medico-legal aspects. A chapter of special interest to pharmacists is that 

 upon Pharmaceutical Jurisprudence, contributed by Judge Geo. F. Koesch. 

 In conclusion the author collects in an appendix a large number of spec- 

 ially interesting and illustrative cases. 



The work is one of interest and of great merit, and is to lie heartily re- 

 commended; moreover, the publishers have given it an attractive and dur- 

 able form. J. 



