44 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 654 



pharmacy, a renaissance, it may be remarked, 

 tliat the author has had much to do in stimu- 

 lating and fostering. With high ideals of 

 professional duty, he was expected to treat his 

 subject honestly, which he has done to a degree 

 that quite meets the possibilities of the situa- 

 tion. The method followed, for the most part, 

 is that of first presenting his subjects, then 

 following each with its applications in phar- 

 macy. 



Eighty-one pages are devoted to an intro- 

 duction to the principal groups of plants. 

 Greater simplicity could scarcely be found 

 consistent with the degree of concentration 

 required. It is an encouraging sign when 

 pharmacy students can be expected to submit 

 gracefully to such an introduction to their 

 botanical course and when boards of trustees 

 will permit it. The economic relations of the 

 groups are briefly discussed. 



The " Outer morphology " of angiosperms 

 is treated in sixty pages, and is accompanied 

 by much excellent elementary physiology. 

 This division of the work is far less commend- 

 able than other chapters. Nearly all the de- 

 scriptive botany that the book contains is 

 found here, and it is inadequate even for the 

 interpretation of the following crude drug 

 descriptions — wholly so for that of the chap- 

 ters on " classification of angiosperms." The 

 illustrations, apparently from photographs of 

 dried specimens, are most unforunate. Many 

 of them, even where venation is to be illus- 

 trated, are mere smudges. The author adopts 

 the broad interpretation of the term " flower " 

 that has had its day in application to flower- 

 less as well as to flowering plants. The essen- 

 tial characteristic of the flower as being a 

 reproductive organism that supplies a special 

 soil for' the germination of the microspore, 

 and for the growth and development of the 

 male gametophyte, is not hinted at, and is 

 indeed necessarily denied by the definition 

 adopted. Notwithstanding this fact, it is 

 found impossible, farther on, to avoid an in- 

 cidental reference to this fundamental truth. 

 Again, the artificial denial of the nature of 

 the sporophyll as a leaf homologue, which has 

 been so laboriously constructed by morpholo- 



gists of recent decades, in the face of almost 

 all natural evidence, is here adopted. 



The sixty-three pages devoted to histology, 

 under the title " Inner morphology," is most 

 creditable. The language is simple and ex- 

 hibits that clearness which bespeaks familiar- 

 ity, and the illustrations are excellent and well 

 selected. The 132 pages devoted to classifica- 

 tion of angiosperms yielding vegetable drugs 

 does not justify its title. The families are 

 eniunerated in order, with the drugs pertain- 

 ing to each, but by no stretch of courtesy can 

 this be called a classification. The condensa- 

 tion of this matter, in immediate connection 

 with the study of drugs in the second part, 

 Pharmacognosy, would have been more natural 

 from the student's standpoint, and really help- 

 ful, which now one finds great difficulty in 

 admitting. 



Nearly 400 pages are devoted to pharma- 

 cognosy, the application of the matter of the 

 first part to the study of drugs. About one 

 fourth of this space is taken up with the 

 subject of powdered drugs. In this entire 

 part, special means are employed to simplify 

 the work of actual identification, and the 

 general discussions and instructions for pro- 

 cedure are admirable. 



Altogether, Professor Kraemer's book is 

 probably the most comprehensive and valuable 

 of its kind that has yet appeared. 



H. H. EusBY 



The Cambridge Natural History. Edited by 



S. F. Harmer and A. E. Shipley. Vol. I., 



including Protozoa, Porifera, Ccslenterata, 



Ctenophora and Echinodermata. Pp. 671, 



296 figures. London : Macmillan & Co. ; 



New York: The Macmillan Co. $4.25. 



To have four very interesting groups of 



lower animals treated in one volume is to 



have none of them satisfactorily handled, and 



in the present volume of this important series 



we feel the limitations that have been set the 



various contributors. The different divisions 



are unevenly balanced as to both matter and 



substance, and in two of the divisions at least, 



the impression is gained that the author had 



