156 Dispensatory of the United States. 



which they are produced by nature, or have come into the hands of 

 the apothecary. As a dispensatory is intended more for reference 

 than for regular perusal, no classification of its materials could com- 

 pensate for the absence of that facility which the alphabetical ar- 

 rangement affords. This constitutes the first part of the work, and 

 occupies about two thirds of the volume. The second part includes 

 all medicines of established value which come under the denomina- 

 tion of preparations. These are, in like manner, treated of alpha- 

 betically, and the authors have, in every instance, preferred the 

 names given to each medicine which is recognised by the Pharma- 

 copoeia of the United States ; but they have also given, in subordi- 

 nation to these, the officinal titles of the best English pharmacopcEias, 

 and they have also, as in the excellent work of Dr. A. T. Thomson, 

 given botanical descriptions of the plants from v^hich the medicines 

 treated of are derived. 



In an appendix of sixteen pages, the authors have treated of the 

 art of prescribing medicines, and have given a list of common extem- 

 poraneous prescriptions, with very useful tables of weights and of 

 measures, both of capacity and length, (comparing the French with 

 the English,) with tables of specific gravity, he. and terminating with 

 a comparison of thermometers. 



But the relative merits of this new Dispensatory must unquestion- 

 ably depend not so much on the arrangements which the authors 

 have adopted, for in this respect they do not differ very materially 

 from the best models which they had before them, but on the taste, 

 judgment, and science displayed in its execution. A work of this 

 kind, in order to claim a superiority over its predecessors, must take 

 cognizance of the advancements of knowledge, not only in our own 

 country, but in all parts of the world, and avail itself of that activity 

 of chemical and medical research for which the present period has 

 been so much distinguished. 



It is well known that the German and French schools have latterly 

 been most conspicuous in chemical discovery, and in its applications 

 to pharmacy and the arts. The Journal de Pharmacie of the French 

 metropolis, although impeded as most of the French journals have 

 been by the political disturbances of that country, has been for some 

 time one of the best vehicles of information extant. We have look- 

 -etd a little into this matter, in reference to the work before us, and 

 have been gratified to find thai the authors were duly aware of the 

 imporitance of resorting to the discoveries of continental Europe, 



