November 23,1372.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
417 
A Manual of Chemical Physiology, Including its 
Points of Contact with Pathology'. By J. L. "NY. 
Thudichum, M.D. London: Longmans. 1872. 
An English, work on Physiological Chemistry has long- 
been wanted. The Cavendish Society’s translation of 
Lehmann’s excellent Manual was not accessible to all, 
and is now, moreover, out of date, and no other of any¬ 
thing like equal merit has succeeded it. It is true that 
the student who reads German can find several good 
books to aid him, and, in particular, Kuhne’s “ Lehr- 
buch,” which we rejoice to hear will shortly be published 
in an English dress by Professor M. Foster. But the 
fact remains that the English student has not hitherto 
had any trustworthy and sufficient guide in the difficult 
work of physiologico-chemical analysis. At the pre¬ 
sent time, even Kuhne is out of print. 
Such is the juncture at which Dr. Thudichum’s book 
has appeared, and it would indeed have been satisfactory 
if it had supplied the want that students are feeling so 
keenly. But this want, we are sorry to find, is still un¬ 
satisfied. We are anxious to do full justice to Dr. 
Thudichum’s ability and industry, and we gladly admit 
that there is much that is valuable in his book ; but its 
faults of arrangement, selection and nomenclature are 
so grave, and its errors, and still more its omissions, so 
glaring, that it is not likely to be of much use as a text¬ 
book. 
The first sixty pages of the book are occupied with a 
general outline of physiological chemistry, reprinted 
almost verbatim from one of the appendices to the tenth 
report of the medical officer to the Privy Council. Many 
of our readers are, no doubt, familiar with these annual 
reports, and will remember the lengthy and finely-illus¬ 
trated memoirs which Dr. Thudichum has contributed 
to them in successive years under the title of “Re¬ 
searches Intended to Promote an Improved Chemical 
Identification of Diseases.” Somehow, these researches 
have been received with not a little distrust by the 
medical profession. Perhaps the very number of the 
discoveries announced and the slender proof adduced in 
support of many of them are sufficient to account for 
this; but the feeling was certainly strengthened by the 
tone of originality—often too much like self-conceit— 
which induced the author to change many of the com¬ 
mon names of chemistry, and to explain facts according 
to hypotheses of his own—hypotheses which had not re¬ 
ceived the adhesion of chemists, and which were often 
crude and improbable. It was felt that a public health 
report was hardly the place in which to re-write ele¬ 
mentary chemistry. Such dogmas as that “all atoms 
possess chemism, dynamicity and polarity,” and the 
constant use of such words as “ chemolysis,” “ physio- 
lysis,” “hydrothion,” for sulphuretted hydrogen; “rho¬ 
danate” for sulphocyanate, and “hydroxyde” for 
hydrate, are clearly out of place in a work of the kind, 
and are evidence of bad taste in the author. 
The portion of Dr. Thudichum’s reports here repro¬ 
duced is interesting and suggestive, and much of it is 
valuable. But it has the great fault to which we have 
before referred; it is untrustworthy. N o student in 
reading it could distinguish well-ascertained facts from 
the hypotheses, often mere guesses, which the author 
mixes with them. Difficult points in physiology are 
disposed of in a few lines, with dogmatic explanations, 
which would be most satisfactory if they were certain, 
but which as things stand are sure to mislead the 
student. Thus, the escape of carbonic acid from the 
lungs is explained (p. 30) by the assumption of a “ he¬ 
matic acid,” which passes into the serum from the cor¬ 
puscles and decomposes the carbonates “ at the very 
moment when the blood-corpuscles arrive in the small 
breathing cells of the lungs.” This idea, or one very 
like it, was started a few years ago by Kuhne, and has some 
probability; but it surely is not right to give it to stu¬ 
dents as matter of fact. Elsewhere (p. 15), the formation 
of hydrochloric acid in the glands of the stomach is de¬ 
scribed as a simple reaction between water and salt, by 
which hydrochloric acid and caustic soda are simul¬ 
taneously formed. Of course this may be the case, but 
considering the strong u priori improbability, who but 
our author would have ventured to state it dogmati¬ 
cally ? 
For examples of simple errors of fact, we may point 
to page 41, where neurinc and choline are described and 
formulated as different substances, whereas they have 
long been known to be identical, and wffiere the acid 
C l6 H 2 . 2 0 2 is described as margaric, instead of palmitic. 
It is, however, right to add that errors of this kind do 
not appear to be numerous. 
The second portion of the work is an analytical guide, 
and is, therefore, wisely made “ prescriptive, in the 
style and manner of pharmacopoeias.” But, most un¬ 
wisely, it has been arranged in alphabetical order, so 
that the unhappy student who wishes to work systema¬ 
tically will find himself carried from acetic acid to al¬ 
bumen, from albumen to alcohol, from alcohol to allan- 
toine, and so on throughout the book. Separate head¬ 
ings are of course given for such substances as bile, blood, 
milk and urine, but as the proximate constituents of 
those substances are scattered throughout the book, it is 
a work of some labour to collect the methods necessary 
for their examination. And the headings themselves are 
imperfect and arbitrary. Bodies as important as Y ite- 
line, choline and glycerine are omitted, whilst luteine 
gets six, and cruentine nearly three pages. In the 
separate articles too, we notice many remarkable 
omissions. Only one kind of albumen, globulin or 
lactic acid is mentioned. No allusion is made to the 
important researches of Miescher on pus, Stiideler and 
Obolensky on the mucin of the submaxillary gland,, or 
Jaffe on the bile and urine pigments. And, finally, 
in the article on urine, no notice is taken of the fermen¬ 
tation test for sugar, or to any necessity for purification 
of the urine before the application of the copper test. 
It is no great compliment certainly to Dr. Thudichum 
to sav that his book is at the present time the best the 
English student can use, but considering its manifold 
imperfections, we cannot help hoping that it will, ere 
long, be superseded by a more trustworthy, if less ambi¬ 
tious text-book. 
Note Book, of Materia Medica, Pharmacology and 
Therapeutics. By R. E. Scoresby-Jackson, M.D., 
Second Edition. Edited by Dr. Angus Macdonald, 
M.A. 
Few students who make this, the second edition of 
Dr. Scoresby-Jackson’s Materia Medica, their text¬ 
book, will complain that the difficulties of the British 
Pharmacopoeia are not most thoroughly explained, and 
their path otherwise made easy and interesting. 
In our review of the former edition* we quoted one 
or two extracts from it, which give a very good idea of 
the general method of treating the subject, and Dr. 
Macdonald has strictly adhered to his author’s plan. 
Nevertheless, much had to be rewritten and rear¬ 
ranged, especially the chemistry, of which the symbols 
are now in the new notation, the old formulas being re¬ 
tained, as in the Pharmacopoeia, “ to facilitate relcrence 
to older works.” 
The work is divided into three parts; the first of 
which is introductory to the whole subject, and includes 
descriptions of pharmaceutical operations, together with 
a very useful list of officinal formulae, with each prepara¬ 
tion under its proper heading. Then follows an article 
on magistral formulae or prescriptions, which contains 
* Pharm. Journ., 2nd Ser. vol. A III. p. 423. 
