554 
HE VIEW. 
the increase, and the attention of the intelligent classes is being directed more 
than ever to the development of the resources of that rich country. 
Under these circumstances, the Indian Government has thought it advisable to 
authorize the publication of a work which shall afford to the medical men and 
pharmaceutists of India information of the same character as that supplied by 
the pharmacopoeias of Europe, but with particular regard to indigenous medi¬ 
cinal products. 
The labour of preparing this work has been entrusted to Mr. Edward John 
Waring, F.B.C.S., Surgeon in Her Majesty’s Indian Army, -author of a 
Manual of Practical Therapeutics and of numerous papers on Indian pharmaco¬ 
logy, assisted by a committee consisting of the following gentlemen, viz. Sir J. 
Ranald Martin, Sir William Brooke, Drs. Thomas Thomson, Robert Wight, 
J. Forbes Watson, Alexander Gibson, and Mr. Daniel Ilanbury. The first 
meeting of the commictee was held at Cannon Row, Westminster, on the 
15th March, after an interview with Lord Dufferin, the Under Secretary of 
State, at the India Office. 
REVIEW. 
A Manual of Practical Therapeutics, considered chiefly with reference to Articles 
of the Materia Medica. By Edward John Waring, F.R.C.S., F.L.S., Surgeon in 
Her Majesty’s Indian Army. Second Edition. London: John Churchill and Sons. 
1865. 
This second edition of Mr. Waring’s manual, as may be seen by the above title, em¬ 
braces a wide field of inquiry, comprising, in fact, all articles of the Materia Medica which 
have obtained any repute, not only in this country, but also in other parts of the civi¬ 
lised globe. Mi\ Waring says : “ This Edition contains all the preparations of the new 
British Pharmacopoeia, together with notices of the principal new remedies which have 
been introduced into practice since the publication of the First Edition in 1854. It may, 
perhaps, be objected that some of these have been too slightly touched upon, whilst un¬ 
due prominence has been given to others. On this point I would observe, that in a work 
of limited size such as the present, it was impossible to treat all articles to the extent 
which they perhaps deserve; and that, in selecting articles for particular or extended 
notice, I have exercised my discretion to the best of my ability. It is believed that no¬ 
thing of vital importance in therapeutic discovery has been omitted.” 
We think that generally the author has made a judicious selection of articles of the 
Materia Medica for extended description, but we should have been inclined to have em¬ 
ployed the pruning-knife with a far more vigorous hand in the less-important articles. 
Thus, such substances as Arctium Lappa, Chenopodium olidum, Cicuta , Cuckoo Flower , 
Flder Bark, Fraxinus excelsior, Indigo , Marrubium vidgare, Lythrum Salicaria, Oleander , 
Ononis spinosa, Oryza sativa, Plumbago europcea, etc., Scroplmlaria nodosa, Scutellaria 
galericulata, and numerous others, can have very little, if any, claims for notice in a 
scientific treatise on Therapeutics. Why Primus or Cerasus virginiana , a well-known 
American remedy, and one frequently prescribed in this country, should be omitted alto¬ 
gether when such articles are retained, we are unable to explain. Many other articles, 
although scarcely employed in this country, are very properly retained from the repu¬ 
tation they have acquired in the East Indies, as Mr. Waring, from his long residence 
in Iudia, and extensive acquaintance with Indian remedies, is especially well qualified, 
for this portion of his task. 
The various substances treated of are arranged alphabetically; hence the work is 
better adapted for reference by the medical practitioner than for systematic study by 
the student. The alphabetical arrangement is preceded by an introductory chapter on 
Therapeutics generally, where the reader will find some useful remarks upon the 
“Arrangement of the Articles of the Materia Medica,” “On the Art of Prescribing 
Medicines,” “The Circumstances which Modify the Action of Medicines,” etc. Our 
