THE SIMPLES AND DRUGS OF INDIA 21 



microchemical tests, the apparent simplicity of which tempts the 

 unwary to rash conclusions ; and that in a large degree it is the 

 uncritical use of microchemical methods that has led to the some- 

 what sweeping and unjust condemnation which these methods 

 have received from various quarters. 



The author gives a concise account of methods, with a list of 

 reagents, in the somewhat brief general portion of the book 

 (pp. 1-36). The remainder (special portion) is divided into four 

 sections, dealing respectively with inorganic bodies, organic bodies, 

 the cell- wall, and inclusions of the protoplast and cell-sap. Full 

 references to literature are appended to each section, and a good 

 index facilitates the use of the book, which is illustrated by 

 numerous excellent figures, the great majority of these being 

 original. The work will be of the greatest value to teachers 

 wishing to plan a course of instruction in microchemistry, while 

 the lists of plants in which the various substances described occur, 

 render the book of special interest to workers in systematic 

 anatomy, since there can be no doubt that microchemical charac- 

 ters frequently give reliable indications of affinity or otherwise. 



F. C. 



Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India. By Garcia da 

 Orta. New edition (Lisbon, 1895). Edited and annotated 

 by the Conde de Ficalho. Translated, with an introduc- 

 tion and index, by Sir Clements Maekham, K.C.B., F.E.S. 

 4to. Pp. xxi, 509. London: Henry Sotheran & Co. 1913. 

 This is the first English version of a very rare book, the third 

 book printed in India in 1563, and " full of printers' errors." 

 The work became known by Clusius's epitome of it, Antwerp, 

 1567, where the author is given as " ab Horto," a translation of 

 his name into Latin ; it further underwent a change into " Del 

 Huerto," and is thus catalogued by the careful Dryander in his 

 Banksian Library Catalogue. The original Portuguese text does 

 not seem to have been reprinted adequately until Count Ficalho 

 did so, as mentioned in the title-page of the volume now before 

 us. (There was a faulty reprint issued in 1872.) 



We have therefore to thank Sir C. Markham for translating 

 the entire work from the Portuguese into English, providing an 

 introduction and notes, and, with the help of Sir George Bird- 

 wood, giving the modern equivalents of the Indian names of the 

 plants discussed, the addition of Acosta's figures, with three 

 indexes, and copious notes. 



The introduction states that Garcia da Orta was born in or 

 about 1490, at Elvas, near the Spanish frontier. He reached Goa 

 in 1534, where he is believed to have ended his days about 1570, 

 having been practising as a physician in India for thirty-six years. 

 It must have been several years before this that he was persuaded 

 to put upon recoi'd his great knowledge of Indian drugs, of which 

 this is the result. It is drawn up in a series of fifty-nine colloquies 

 or conversations between da Orta and his friend Dr. Euano, " the 

 man in the street," a recent arrival at Goa, well read in the old 



