Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1908. 
Book  Reviews. 
183 
BOOK  REVIEWS. 
The  British  Pharmaceutical  Codex. — An  Imperial  Dispensatory 
for  the  Use  of  Medical  Practitioners  and  Pharmacists.  By  Authority 
of  the  Council  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain.  Pub- 
lished by  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  at  72  Great  Russell  Street, 
London,  W.  C,  1907.    Price,  125. 6d.  net  (abroad,  15s.  6d,),  delivered. 
This  ponderous  tome  of  more  than  1400  pages  comes  as  an  op- 
portune and  highly  interesting  contribution  to  the  almost  worldwide 
efforts  that  are  being  made  to  rehabilitate  the  profession  of  pharmacy 
in  a  field  from  which  its  votaries  have  been  all  but  driven  out  by  the 
manufacturers  of  nostrums  and  proprietary  remedies. 
In  England  itself  this  book  appears  to  have  been  received  with 
marked  evidences  of  approval  on  the  one  hand,  and  vigorous,  and, 
one  might  almost  add,  venomous,  criticism  on  the  other.  The 
marked  differences  of  opinion  that  have  characterized  the  reception 
of  this  book  may  be  taken  as  evidence  that  it  has  aroused  a  healthy 
interest  in  things  pharmaceutical  at  home,  and  for  this  reason,  if  for 
no  other,  it  is  well  worth  the  attention  and  study  of  pharmacists  in 
all  parts  of  the  world. 
In  a  preliminary  review  of  this  kind  it  will,  of  course,  be  practi- 
cally impossible  to  call  attention  to  all  of  the  various  features  of  the 
Codex  that  merit  recognition,  and  we  must  content  ourselves  with 
a  more  general  inquiry  into  the  object,  the  contents  and  the  uses  of 
the  volume  before  us. 
From  what  has  already  been  said,  it  will  appear  that  the  British 
Pharmaceutical  Codex  is  in  reality  more  than  a  mere  recipe  book, 
and  that  it  actually  essays  to  be,  as  its  subtitle  indicates,  "  An  Im- 
perial Dispensatory  for  the  Use  of  Medical  Practitioners  and  Pharma^ 
cists."  That  this  claim  of  the  publishers  is  well  founded  is  evidenced 
by  the  fact  that  the  book  contains  upwards  of  2,500  monographs 
and  formulae  in  addition  to  a  number  of  tables  that  add  materially 
to  its  usefulness  as  a  pharmaceutical  handbook  and  guide. 
The  practical  value  of  the  volume  is  further  augmented  by  an 
exhaustive  index,  contained  in  104  double-column  pages,  that  repre- 
sents upwards  of  12,000  references. 
In  the  preface  the  existence  of  the  Codex  is  explained  as  being 
the  result  of  an  apparent  need  for  a  reliable  work  of  reference,  on 
the  available  or  recognized    materia   medica,  published  by  the 
