526 



NA TURE 



[April 5, 1894 



the British Pharmacopoeia were purely pharmaceutical, 

 and were in no way connected with any disbelief in its 

 therapeutical properties. The exclusion of Ignatia will 

 be regar-led with feelings of regret by many prescribers 

 who have been accustomed to consider it of much value 

 in the treatment of hysteria and other affections inci- 

 dental to women. It undoubtedly contains active prin- 

 ciple,; identical with those of nux vomica, but therapeuti- 

 cally the two drugs appear not to be interchangeable. 

 Thuja, again, although comparatively little known, has 

 many enthusiastic supporters. The evidence in favour 

 of these drugs, it is true, is purely clinical, and rests on 

 no firm pharmacological basis. 



The list of articles added to the Pharmacopoeia, some 

 eighty-eight in number, is of importance as indicating 

 the measure of popularity which certain drugs have 

 obtained in the United States. The selection will meet 

 with the approval of the great majority of therapeutists 

 i this country. We note with pleasure that the bromide 

 lactate and iodide of strontium have received official 

 recognition. These salts, thanks to the researches of 

 Paraf-Javal, can now be obtained in a state of abso- 

 lute purity. The bromide especially is extensively 

 employed, and has, to a great extent, superseded the 

 other bromides in the treatment of epilepsy and other 

 convulsive disorders. It rarely produces a rash on the 

 skin, or any of the other symptoms included under the 

 term " bromism." The lactate is said to be useful in 

 Bright's disease arid chronic albuminuria, whilst the 

 iodide is of much value in the treatment of tertiary 

 syphilis. Strophanthus, the pharmacological action of 

 which was so exhaustively worked out by Prof T. R. 

 Fraser, of Edinburgh, very properly receives admission, 

 its value as a substitute for digitalis ensuring its ready 

 acceptance. Convallaria, another member of the digitalis 

 group, is not so generally used, and of late years has lost 

 rather than gained popularity. Its admission may per- 

 haps excite some surprise ; but if there is a difference of 

 opinion respecting the value of any particular drug, it is 

 as well to err on the side of liberality. • Rosorcin is an- 

 other drug which has hardly maintained its early 

 reputation, but it is still extensively employed in 

 Germany, and its admission may fairly be considered 

 justifiable. Lanoline, cocaine, menthol, naphthol, and 

 salol have passed into the category of domestic remedies, 

 and are so largely used that they could not be overlooked. 

 Nitrite of sodium, the introduction of which some years 

 ago excited much controversy, has slowly but surely 

 established itself in public favour, and has now an 

 assured position as a therapeutical agent. We find, 

 with some surprise, that pepsin, the manufacture of 

 which has been carried to an amazing pitch of perfection 

 by American chemists, is now for the first time admitted 

 into their Pharmacopoeia. The method of estimating its 

 activity differs materially from that recommended in the 

 British Pharmacopoeia, the standard being considerably 

 higher, so that many of our commercial pepsins would 

 hardly pass muster in America. Pancreatin, now so 

 largely employed for predigesting milk and other foods, 

 takes its place beside pepsin. The ever-popular anti- 

 febrin is introduced under the name of acetanilidum, but 

 we look in vain for antipyrine, sulphonal, saccharin and 

 many other remedies of undoubted value. The explana- 

 NO. 1275, VOL. 49] 



tion of the absence of some recently introduced remedies 

 may be found in the statement contained in the preface 

 that " in accordance with the positive instructions of the 

 convention those of the new synthetic remedies which 

 cannot be produced otherwise than under patented pro- 

 cesses, or which are protected by proprietary rights, are 

 not admitted into the Pharmacopoeia." Pure terebene 

 and terpin hydrate, which clearly do not come under the 

 ban, are admitted without question. It is clear that the 

 framers of an official publication, such as a national 

 Pharmacopoeia, exercise a wise discretion in refusing to 

 admit drugs the exact composition of which is unknown 

 whilst their mode of manufacture is practically a trade 

 secret. 



In conclusion, we must offer our sincere congratula- 

 tions to the committee and those who have assisted in the 

 work on the admirable manner in which their gigantic 

 task has been accomplished. 



TWO BOOKS ON FORESTRY. 



No. 2. Tree Pruning. A Treatise on Pruning Forest 

 and Ornamental Trees. By A. des Cars. Translated 

 from the seventh French edition by C. S. Sargent, 

 Professor of Arboriculture in Harvard University, 

 U.S.A. (London: Rider, 1893.) 



No. 3. Practical Forestry. By Angus D. Webster, 

 Wood Manager to the Duke of Bedford. (London : 

 Rider.) 



N/I ESSRS. RIDER AND SON are publishing a series 

 A of technical handbooks, the first of which dealt 

 with the economical transmission of power, and Nos. 

 2 and 3 have just been issued. Des Cars' treatise on 

 pruning is in many ways an excellent little book, which 

 has been thoroughly well translated by Prof. Sargent, 

 and it contains sixty plates admirably illustrating the 

 text. 



The book is written in a most persuasive style, and no 

 landowner with trees in his hedgerows, or some parcels of; 

 woodland, will read it without being tempted to set to 

 work straightway and prune his trees. Des Cars some-; 

 what ambitiously considers pruning as " a means of| 

 o-rowing the greatest number of full-grown trees on a 

 given area, and making them attain their greatest value 

 m the shortest time without injury to the underwood 

 beneath them." 



The first fifty-six pages of the book deal with the oak, 

 the species usually grown in Britain and in the north of; 

 France as standards over coppice ; and from an incidental 1 

 remark, it may also be considered applicable to the elm j 

 and ash, though no distinction is made regarding syca-j 

 more or other trees which do not recover readily froiiij 

 pruning. I 



Only three pages are given to soft-woods, poplars and! 

 conifers, and for firs and spruces Des Cars very wisely | 

 advises that pruning should be restricted to dead and 

 dying branches, to be cut off close to the trunk, so as to 

 prevent the knots which interfere with their growth, andj 

 eventually produce holes in boards and planks. Hisj 

 advice regarding pines is not quite so sound, for though, 

 it is quite true that when grown isolated they develop 

 large branches, yet no one wanting pine timber would 



