40 
REVIEWS. 
It has been his object, while limiting its size, to include all points connected with the 
officinal preparation of medicines, and so much information on the therapeutic action of 
drugs as would serve as a sufficient guide in actual prkctice. All controversial points have 
been avoided, as unsuited to the design of the work; and the information confined to 
the facts really ascertained as to the action of each drug, and the purposes for which it 
has been advantageously employed.” 
“ A Table of Contents, by a glance at which the reader will at once see all drugs sci¬ 
entifically arranged, together with their pharmaceutical preparations, is contained in the 
present edition ; as likewise a Table indicating the principal changes of nomenclature 
and important differences of strength between preparations in the British Pharmacopoeia 
and in the London Pharmacopoeia, 1851; and lastly, a somewhat copious Posological 
Table is now introduced.” 
The following notice of M'ezereon will serve as an illustration of the manner in which 
Dr. Garrod has carried out his design :— 
“ Thymelacee. 
Mezereum, Mezereon. The dried bark of Daphne Mezereum , or Mezereon ; Linn. 
Syst. Octandria Monogynia ; or Daphne Laureola, the Spurge Laurel. The latter is 
chiefly found in commerce ; indigenous. 
Description. Thin, flat, or curled pieces of various lengths ; tough, of a brown 
colour outside, but white and fibrous within, with slight odour, taste hot and very acrid. 
Prep, and Comp. An acrid volatile oil , acrid resin , and a crystalline principle ; 
daphnin. When the root is boiled in water, an acrid vapour rises. 
Off. Prep. It is contained in Decoctum Sarze Composititm. 
Therapeutics. Mezereon is a powerful local irritant, and even vesicant; it causes vo¬ 
miting and purging in large doses, but in small ones diaphoresis and diuresis. Used in 
chronic rheumatism, syphilis, scrofulous and skin diseases. Seldom given in this country, 
except in the compound decoction of sarsaparilla. In America an ointment is used. 
l)ose. Of compound decoction of sarsaparilla, 1 fl. oz. to 2 fl. oz. or more.” 
The above description, which includes everything that is absolutely essential for the 
medical practitioner and medical student to know, may be taken as a fair specimen of the 
others. 
Such a text-book cannot but prove a useful guide to medical practitioners, and to 
those students of materia medica who are not called upon to look deeply into the science, 
and even to the latter class it will serve as an introduction to the larger and more com¬ 
prehensive works of Pereira, Christisou, Wood and Bache, etc. 
Although we thus gladly admit that the work of our author contains much that is 
good, we must at the same time state that it is by no means free from errors. Some of 
these, as want of clearness of description, and wrong spelling of technical terms, have 
doubtless arisen from the desire of the author to get his work published as soon as pos¬ 
sible after the issue of the British Pharmacopoeia ; but others having been recently pointed 
out in this Journal and elsewhere, we cannot but regret to have to refer to again from 
their occurrence in the present volume. We trust, however, that a new edition will be 
speedily called for, and thus afford bur author another opportunity of carefully revising 
the work, and make it still more worthy of the high reputation he has deservedly ac¬ 
quired. 
A Companion to the Pharmacopoeia ; comparing the strength of the various Prepara¬ 
tions with those of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, United States, and other 
foreign Pharmacopoeias; with Practical Hints on Prescribing. By Peter Squire, 
F.L.S., Chemist on the establishment of the Queen, Chemist in Ordinary to the Prince 
of Wales and the Royal Family, late President of the Pharmaceutical Society. 
The defects and deficiencies of the British Pharmacopoeia have been felt and admitted to 
be so numerous, and some of them so important, that those for whose use the work was 
intended have hesitated in adopting it as their accredited guide, and appear at the pre¬ 
sent time to be waiting for the Medical Council to give it the value and authority that 
such a work ought to possess. On its first appearance, all those interested in the subject 
were anxious to know what changes would be effected by it; at present, the anxiety is 
rather to know what changes are to be made in it, or what explanations can be given 
