COLLECTION OF MATERIA MEDICA FOR STUDENTS. 
375 
readily obtained and preserved unchanged in India should have found a place; 
but to over-burden the work with notices of drugs which require to be used 
according to the directions of the British Pharmacopoeia in a fresh state, and 
are, therefore, as a matter of course, unavailable, as the authors state, in India, as 
well as with others which readily undergo decomposition in hot regions, and also 
with those for which efficient substitutes exist in India, we regard as a mistake. 
Although we have pointed out, as we believe, the blemishes of the volume, we 
can speak in an unqualified manner of the careful aud able manner in which it has 
been generally edited. The volume is a mine of wealth for those who desire 
to become acquainted with the indigenous drugs of India, and we cannot but 
believe that as our knowledge of these becomes more extended, many of them 
but little known at present, but of undoubted efficacy, will find their appropriate 
place in the British and other Pharmacopoeias of Europe and America. 
At the end of the volume we have an extensive Classified Catalogue of Indian 
Medicinal Products derived from theOrganic Kingdom, indicating those which are 
more or less analogous to articles officinal in the British Pharmacopoeia, and for 
which they may be employed as substitutes. This list will be found most valuable 
to medical practitioners whose acquaintance with remedies is confined to those 
in use in this country, but who upon removal to India are obliged to resort fre¬ 
quently to such substitutes as can then be procured. The list will also be found 
most useful in guiding medical practitioners in their search for new remedies. 
After the Classified Catalogue the Editor has inserted a very useful Appendix, 
which contains further important information respecting indigenous and other 
remedies; and at the end of the work we have an extensive and very carefully- 
prepared Index, which has been drawn up with the especial view of counteracting 
any difficulty which might arise in consequence of the preparations of the several 
drugs having been placed in the body of the volume under the head of each 
drug instead of in detached portions of the work under the separate headings 
of Extracts, Infusions, Tinctures, etc. 
COLLECTION OF ORGANIC MATERIA MEDICA FOR THE MINOR AND 
MODIFIED EXAMINATIONS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
In order to assist students in preparing for the above examinations, Messrs. Southall, 
Son, and Dymond, of Birmingham, have issued a collection of characteristic specimens 
of the roots, barks, flowers, fruits, leaves, resins, gums, etc., of the British Pharmacopoeia, 
1867. Each specimen bears a label containing a description of the source from which 
the article is derived, its Natural Order, characters and tests, dose, and the names of the 
Pharmacopoeia preparations into the composition of which it enters. 
Altogether 138 specimens of drugs are comprised in the collection, but the following 
ten specimens (being ordered in their fresh state), are omitted from the collection, 
namely: —Aconiti folia, Armoracice radix, Fcbalii fructus, Lactuca, Laurocerasi folia, 
Limonis cortex, Rhoeados petala, Rosas canines fructus, Rosce centifolice petala, and Sam- 
buci fores. Of the following nine, which are ordered both fresh and dried, only the 
dried specimens are included:— Belladonnas folia, Colchici cormus, Conii folia, Glycyr- 
rhizae radix, Hyoscyami folia, Rosce Gallicce petala, Sabince cacumina, Scoparii cacuviina, 
and Taraxaci radix. Ficus, Prunum, and Uvce are also omitted ; aud the following five 
specimens being costly are likewise omitted, namely, Castoreum, Crocus, Moschus, 
Opium, and Scammonium; these latter specimens, however, wull be supplied upon spe¬ 
cial application at their ordinary prices. The descriptive labels of all the above excepted 
specimens are, also, sent with the collection. 
So far as we have been able to examine the collection, the specimens appear to have 
been very carefully selected, and well adapted for the purposes for which they are intended. 
We believe that this collection, which may be purchased at the moderate price of thirty 
shillings, will prove a real boon to students, more particularly at the present time, and 
especially to those who live beyond the reach of places where facilities for study are afforded. 
We trust that the time is not far distant when collections of the more important offi¬ 
cinal plants will be also as readily obtainable by students in this country as is now the 
case in Germany. 
