May 10, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
899 
known in the literary departments of science. The task 
of preparing the abstracts is performed by a body of gen¬ 
tlemen whose names are given, and whose initials are 
appended to their respective work. There is also a large 
and influential publishing committee which exercises a 
general superintendence of the journal. 
So vast an undertaking as this could not be carried on 
without great expense. We understand that the British 
Association has made a grant of £100 to the journal, and 
that a special subscription has been raised among the 
fellows of the Society and other friends of science to ensure 
a trial of the scheme. We hope that as the monthly num¬ 
bers of the journal get better known the appreciation of 
the public will relieve the Society of any further financial 
anxiety. For ourselves we cannot think the library furni¬ 
ture of any active student of science can be complete 
without the journal and abstracts published by the Che¬ 
mical Society. 
The West Riding Lunatic Asylum Medical Reports. 
Edited by J. Crichton Browne, M.D., F.R.S.E. Yol. 
II. London: J. and A. Churchill. 1872. 
This is the second annual instalment of a series which 
promises to be of much value to the practitioner in general 
and the medico-psychologist in particular. 
In no department of the healing art has more progress 
been made than in the diagnosis and treatment of lunacy. 
The old system of torture and physical restraint—a relic 
of those early Christian times when the lunatic was re¬ 
garded as the victim of demoniacal possession, out of 
whom the devil had to be scourged —would, if repeated 
now-a-days, draw down upon the practitioner the ven¬ 
geance of the law. The cruel apparatus, without which 
no asylum was held to be complete,—the hobbles which 
prevented locomotion; the bath of surprise into which 
the maniac suddenly found himself descending through 
the treacherous floor, and thereafter immersed to the 
chin; the travelling of strong-kneed keepers over the 
chest of the recumbent patient till his ribs were fractured 
without any external sign,—all these devices are now 
tilings of the past, and replaced by a system at once 
rational, humane, and often efficacious. 
Yorkshire, under the auspices of the shrewd and genial 
Tuke, led the way in this philanthropic revolution, and 
his traditions are being worthily sustained and developed 
by the able and energetic physician who presides over the 
West Riding Asylum. Among other services to the 
cause of medico-psychology, in theory and in practice, 
Dr. Crichton Browne, for the last three years, has incited 
his staff to the observation of such phenomena in his 
patients,—their special diseases, the treatment by which 
they seem to benefit, the therapeutic agents which ex¬ 
perience has shown to be most efficacious,—as, when 
clearly recorded, would be of use to the profession at 
large. These records have been fasciculated in two suc¬ 
cessive volumes, and constitute a substantial and enduring 
addition to medical literature. On the principle of vires 
acquirit eundo, the second volume is a distinct improve¬ 
ment on its meritorious predecessor, and, if the ratio of 
progress be, as we have every right to expect, maintained, 
the series will be looked for from year to year with pro¬ 
gressive curiosity and interest. 
In the present volume the articles which will have 
most attraction for the pharmacist are, Dr. Wilkie Bur- 
man’s on ‘ Conia, and its use in Subcutaneous Injection 
Dr. S. Mitchell’s on the ‘ Effects of Ether and Nitrous 
Oxide combinedand Dr. Maziere Courtenay’s on ‘ The 
Use of Opium in the treatment of Melancholia.’ All 
these contain fresh and thought-inspiring matter, and 
should be studied in view of the approaching revision of 
the ‘ British Pharmacopoeia.’ 
Other papers in the volume, of more than average 
ability, are the editor’s on ‘Cranial Injuries and Mental 
Diseases,’ which ought to bring its author into court as 
a medical witness on all occasions when damages are 
sought from railway companies for obscure injuries to the 
brain; the ‘ Mental Symptoms of Ordinary Disease,’ by 
Dr. Patrick Nicol; the ‘Electric Treatment of the In¬ 
sane,’ by Dr. Clifford Allbutt; and ‘ Impairment of Lan¬ 
guage as the result of Cerebral Disease,’ by the editor’s 
father, Dr. W. A. F. Browne, late Commissioner in 
Lunacy for Scotland. This last is an exceptionally able 
paper, reasoned and written with much freshness, force, 
and effect. Throughout the volume, indeed, the literary 
features are unusually commendable, and reflect the high¬ 
est credit on its accomplished editor and his trusty en¬ 
tourage. 
BOOKS RECEIVED. 
Report on the New or Fifth Decennial Revision of 
the United States’ Pharmacopeia to the Medical 
Society of New York. By Edward R. Squibb. 
New York : Appleton and Co. 1873. 
Manual for Medical Officers of Health. By 
Edward Smith, M.D., LL.B. (Lond.), F.R.S. Lon¬ 
don : Knight and Co. 1873. 
Notice has been received of the death of the following:— 
On the 23rd of April, 1873, Mr. William Judd, Phar¬ 
maceutical Chemist, of Bath Street, Leamington. Mr. 
Judd had been a Member of the Pharmaceutical Society 
since 1859. 
On the 2nd of May, 1873, Mr. John Handcock, Chemist 
and Druggist, of Ossett, near Wakefield. Mr. Handcock 
had been a Member of the Pharmaceutical Society since 
1870. 
On the 1st May, 1873, Mr. William Taylor, Chemist 
and Druggist, 120, Oldham Road, Manchester. 
On the 5th May, 1873, Mr. James Bell, Chemist and 
Druggist, of Broadgate, Grasmere, Westmoreland. 
On the 5th of March, 1873, Mr. Thomas Sherlock, 
Chemist and Druggist, of St. Helen’s. 
Pates an!) Queries. 
ADHESIVE PLASTER.—M. Eng gives the following 
formula for the preparation of an adhesive plaster in 
L' Union Pharmaceutique :— 
Powdered Gum Dammar . . . . 560 parts. 
Oil of Sweet Almonds.140 „ 
Castor Oil.70 „ 
Glycerine.30 „ 
Aniline Red.q. s. 
Spirit of Ether (equal quantities of 1 225 to 
ether and spirit./ 240 „ 
The first four ingredients are to be heated in a copper 
vessel until the resin is fused, the aniline red then added, 
and when the mixture has half cooled, the spirit of ether 
is to be poured in. An emulsive liquid is thus formed of 
the consistence of syrup. A layer is then spread on a 
material previously coated with mucilage of starch, flour, 
or isinglass. The court plaster so made is said to be 
strongly adhesive, bright and shining, and to be free from 
any irritating effect on the skin. It does not dry up like 
ordinary court plaster, contains no lead, and may be 
spread upon calico, silk, gutta percha, or paper. It also 
allows of the introduction of any substance soluble in 
alcohol or ether. 
