Decbmbee 31j 1915] 



SCIENCE 



935 



A. punctipennis. This term should have been 

 A. pseudopunctipennis, which in fact is a spe- 

 cies quite distinct from the punctipennis with 

 which Dr. Dupree worked. W. V. King 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Scientific and Applied Pharmacognosy in- 

 tended for the Use of Students in Pharmacy, 

 as a Handbook for Pharmacists and as a 

 Reference Booh for Food and Drug Analysts 

 and Pharmacologists. By Henry Kraemee, 

 professor of botany and pharmocognosy in 

 the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. One 

 vol., pp. viii, 857, with over 300 plates com- 

 prising about 1,000 figures. Published by 

 the author, 145 Worth 10th St., Philadelphia. 

 The writer well remembers the " Manual of 

 Materia Mediea " which was used at the Phila- 

 delphia College of Pharmacy as text in the 

 middle of the eighties. Its author had gone 

 beyond the mere description of the gross char- 

 acteristics of the crude drugs and, following 

 German example, had added Lupenhilder to 

 his text. For the rest, it was a compilation of 

 names and synonyms of plants, of constitu- 

 ents and properties, with a purely technical 

 description of the part used as drug. It con- 

 tained the bare facts which the student was ex- 

 pected to commit to memory. Por review 

 purposes, the student fell back on a booklet 

 composed of synoptical tables. In justice to 

 Professor Maisch it should be said that his 

 personality and even his lectures were much 

 more interesting than his test. Indeed, to the 

 student who attended college with a real de- 

 sire to improve himself. Professor Maisch was 

 one of the principal incentives to aspire to 

 higher ideals. 



With even more vividness, the writer' re- 

 members a meeting of the Scientific Section 

 of the American Pharmaceutical Association 

 at which the author of the treatise under re- 

 view read a paper on the teaching of pharma- 

 cognosy. Always sincere in what he presents 

 and full of enthusiasm of his mission, the 

 speaker carried away his audience, which ap- 

 parently felt that a new day had dawned in 

 pharmaceutical pedagogy. 



If Bastin had already gone a step farther 



than Maisch, his successor seemed to feel that 

 pharmacognosy was to be made an exact sci- 

 ence by the histological study of drugs. His 

 ambition was to drill his students so that, even 

 in their dreams, they might recognize the frag- 

 ments of tissues found in a mixed powder of 

 several drugs and thereby identify the com- 

 ponents. This was a highly ambitious pro- 

 gram, the attainment of which might be real- 

 ized by a few experts who had spent their lives 

 in work of this kind, but was scarcely to be 

 hoped for on part of the undergraduates. 

 Moreover, such a course, even without the pos- 

 sible hope of attainment, is just as highly 

 technical as the text of Maisch's " Manual." 

 Weither should be the goal of the teacher of 

 pharmacognosy. Fortunately for the teaching: 

 of pharmacognosy in the IJnited States, Pro- 

 fessor Kraemer, not many years later, re- 

 pudiated his own position and came out boldly* 

 for the mastering of a few fimdamental prin- 

 ciples as opposed to the grind of a lot of 

 technical detail. 



The statutory definition of pharmacy and 

 pharmacology by the department of education 

 of the state of Wew York is exceedingly un- 

 fortunate and reveals, as well as any single 

 incident may, the arbitrariness of educational 

 standardization. It was not to be expected 

 that a representative of the P. C. P. would be 

 unduly influenced by legislation at Albany, 

 yet we are grateful for the use of the word 

 pharmacognosy rather than pharmacology as 

 the characteristic word in the title. Both 

 words mean etymologically the same, both 

 stand for what may be regarded the same sci- 

 ence, yet, whereas pharmacology represents the 

 medical viewpoint, pharmacognosy represents 

 that of the pharmacist. Both pharmacologist 

 and pharmacognoeist deal practically with the 

 same subject-matter, but the point of empha- 

 sis of each naturally differs according to his 

 professional viewpoint. The student of 

 pharmacology wants to know about the vege- 

 table origin of his drugs, he must know some- 

 thing about their chemical constituents, but 

 the point of emphasis is that of physiological 

 action. Wherever possible, it is the animal 

 experiment that engages his attention as pro- 



