THh ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



45 



well; but to enable a student who is proceeding 

 de novo to gain a knowledge of structural bot- 

 any for the purposes of pharmacognosy, we can 

 see nothing but failure. Herein we criticise th e 

 book, not specifically the author. Publishers' 

 books are not always authors' books. It is 

 doubtful if any publisher can be found willing 

 to publish as a business enterprise, a perfect 

 text-book of Botany for pharmaceutical students. 

 When such appears, it will be as a labor of 

 love, by one whose regard for the subject is 

 such as to lead him to donate his time and labor, 

 and whose means enable him to bear the bur- 

 den of a financially unsuccessful enterprise. 



The part of the work under criticism is a 

 mere series of definitions, illustrated in a highly 

 unsuccessful manner, and frequently losing 

 sight of the requirement that a definition must 

 include the whole of the thing defined and 

 nothing else, It is very naive to say: "All or- 

 ganic matter containing a green coloring matter 

 called chlorophyl, belongs to the vegetable 

 kingdom," without directly stating that no 

 other class does, which statement would leave 

 out the fungi, a part of the definition of which 

 is that they contain no such matter. To define 

 Morphology as treating — "Of the organs of 

 plants and their relations to each other," is not 

 to define it at all, as that would include the 

 whole of Organography, and does not even ex- 

 clude Physiology, except by virtue of the 

 author's preceding clause. Systematic botany, 

 defined as "That division which treats of 

 the arrangement and classification of plants," 

 does not suggest the vital characteristics of 

 that subject. It would be more philosophi- 

 cal to refer to the distinctive characteristics of 

 Phanerogams as the manner in which the em- 

 bryo is produced within a true seed, than to inti- 

 mate that the embryo is entirely foreign to 

 cryptogamic reproduction. These definitions, 

 taken from less than two pages of matter, indi- 

 cate to our mind a lack of the expenditure of 

 time requisite to bring forth a set of new defini- 

 tions more perfectly in accord with the fullest 

 knowledge o.f to-day than any list which has 

 yet appeared; and yet when the instruction 

 given in a new text-book is chiefly limited to 

 definitions, that is the very least that should 

 have been attempted. 



Some of the morphological definitions are 

 actually at variance with accurate descriptive 

 usage, as that of primary and secondary roots, 

 duration, etc. To call a stem an "axis" and a 

 root an "axis" of a different kind, is to perpetu- 

 ate a term at the expense of all regard for that 



accuracy which is the most important element 

 of scientific language. Such subjects as vena- 

 tion are of prime importance to the pharmacist, 

 and so far from restricting the teachings to sev- 

 eral of the more important terms presented in 

 ordinary text-books on botany, the classifica- 

 tion should be elaborated in its fullest details. 

 Compare the definition of classes, as " Plants 

 resembling one another in some grand leading 

 feature," and of orders or families, as "Plants 

 that very closely resemble each other in some 

 leading particular," with the clear presentation 

 of ranks in class characteristics, given by 

 Agassiz a generation ago, and which should, if 

 anything, have been improved upon in the 

 light of modern knowledge and perfected 

 usage. 



The subject of nomenclature, the recent agi- 

 tation of which has done more to expose and 

 shatter erroneous practices in scientific thought 

 and custom than any other influence, and 

 whose correct apprehension is the very corner- 

 stone of pharmacopceial definition, we do not 

 see anywhere treated. 



It is a pleasure to turn from a contemplation 

 so depressing to the spirits of one who has la- 

 bored hopefully for years to secure a just and 

 rational treatment of his favorite study at the 

 hands of Pharmaceutical educators, to Part II. 

 of Prof. Sayre's book, a work so bright and 

 practical, so replete with new and helpful ideas 

 in the teaching of practical Pharmacognosy, 

 and so full of information, both standard and 

 exceptional, though unhappily marred by many 

 errors, as to secure for it at once a prominent 

 place upon the shelves of the " Handy Book 

 Case." 



The principle is here adhered to of making a 

 single volume do duty as a text-book of Phar- 

 macognosy and of "Materia Medica," as the 

 latter term is commonly used. We have never 

 looked upon this method as being practicable, 

 but Prof. Sayre resorts to a most ingenious de- 

 vice never before resorted to, by which it must 

 be admitted that better results have been ob- 

 tained than have previously been reached. 

 What might be called a " Pharmacognostical 

 Key," or a synopsis of Pharmacognosy, is pre- 

 sented separately in advance of the main body 

 of Part II. Here the drugs are numbered to 

 correspond with the consecutive numbering 

 prominently displayed under the second ar- 

 rangement, that by natural orders, the proper 

 method for retaining and displaying the natural 

 relationships of active constituents and medi- 

 cinal properties. The "Pharmacognostical Key" 



