444 
REVIEWS. 
such medicines to children of such tender ages. It was, however, very common, and it 
was surprising that more fatal cases did not occur. The jury, in returning their ver¬ 
dict, did not attribute the slightest blame to Mr. Aldridge, as he had sold the medicine 
under the belief that it was for a child of mature years. They also acquitted the mother 
of any blame, their verdict being to the effect that she had administered the medicine in 
entire ignorance of the fearful consequences that followed. They appended to their 
verdict a hope that mothers would be careful in administering medicine to their children, 
and advised that when there was apparent danger, a medical man should be consulted. 
During the inquiry it was stated that the new law regulating the sale of poisons would 
be in force at the beginning of next year, and its provisions were said to be of such a 
nature that a great benefit to the community would be the result. 
REVIEWS. 
IIistoire Naturelle des Drogues Simples, ou Cours d’Histoire Naturelle Pro- 
fesse a l’Ecole de Pharmacie de Paris. Par N. J. B. G. Guibourt, Professeur a l’Ecole 
superieure de Pharmacie de Paris, Membre de l’Acaddmie de Medecine. Ouvrage 
couronne par I’lnstitut (Academie des Sciences). Sixieme edition, corrige'e et 
augmentee, par G. Planchon, Docteur en Medecine et Docteur es Sciences, Professeur 
h. l'Ecole superieure de Pharmacie de Paris. Avec plus de 900 figures intercalees dans 
le texte. Paris: J. B. Bailliere et fils. 1860. 8vo. Tome I. et II. 
When the late Professor Guibourt retired from the active duties of the Paris School 
of Pharmacy in the year 1866, it was his intention to prepare a new edition of the use¬ 
ful and excellent work with which his name is so intimately associated; but the project 
was frustrated by his death at the age of 77 in the following year. A copy enriched 
with his own annotations remained, and his unrivalled collection was happily not dis¬ 
persed :—aided by these materials, his successor Dr. Gustave Planchon has undertaken 
the task of placing the Histoire des Drogues once more before the public, with such 
alterations and additions as the progress of science has rendered necessary. In doing 
this he has thought it right to allow the book to retain the original and we may say 
personal character which distinguished it. We have often admired this feature of the 
work: our author tells us what he has observed and thought about this and that sub¬ 
stance, sometimes giving the date of his earliest observations. Thus in treating the 
order Lauracece he remarks that about the year 1805, the period at which he commenced 
the study of pharmacy (being then in his fifteenth year), the bark sold in Paris as 
Cassia lignea differed from other barks of the Cinnamon group by its complete want of 
smell and taste , and he adds that when about 1812 or 1813, certain specimens designed 
for the grand pharmacological collection of the Pharmacie Centrale des Hopitaux were 
sent for from Holland (“ afin que leur qualite fid mieux assuree ”), this same inodorous 
bark was supplied as Cassia lignea. We cite these remarks because they show the 
observant habits which distinguished Guibourt even when a youth, and because we 
once had the pleasure of handing him a specimen of this curious sort of Cassia found 
in the London market, which the accuracy of his description enabled us to recognize. 
The first volume of the work before us is devoted to mineralogy, a subject embraced 
n the course of study through which a French pharraacien has to pass. The conclud¬ 
ing 70 pages are descriptive of the principal mineral waters used in medicine. 
The second volume comprises a portion of the Vegetable Materia Medica, commencing 
with plants of the lowest organization and advancing as far as Styracacew ; and here 
Dr. Planchon’s care as Editor is conspicuous in the numerous additions of new and 
valuable information. 
The nature of Ergot which has been so fertile a subject of speculation and research 
among naturalists was discussed with great interest by Guibourt, and with conclusions 
which approached more nearly to the truth, as afterwards elucidated by Tulasne, than 
those of any previous author. To Guibourt in fact is due the first figure of fructifying 
ergot, if we may so speak of the Claviceps purpurea of Tulasne, though we must admit 
that he regarded it rather as a parasite of the ergot than as the ultimate development 
of that substance. This somewhat rude woodcut has been replaced in the new edition 
