Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
December,  1910.  / 
Book  Reviews. 
of  combination  and  how  they  may  take  the  place  of  many  proprietary 
preparations  for  which  extravagant  claims  have  been  made. 
The  book  has  been  thoroughly  revised  and  brought  into  accord 
with  present-day  teachings  and  facts.  The  authors  are  champions 
of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopceia  and  the  well-established  remedies  con- 
tained therein.  The  only  reason  for  the  extensive  use  of  hundreds — 
yes  thousands — of  preparations  which  are  upon  the  market  to-day  is 
simply  the  fact  that  we  know  very  little  about  any  of  them.  This 
work  of  Hatcher  and  Wilbert  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction  in  that 
it  acquaints  the  medical  student  and  the  practitioner  with  the  nature 
and  uses  of  the  official  substances  and  their  preparations. 
Die  Atherischen  Ole.  Von  E.  Gildemeister  und  Fr.  Hoff- 
mann. Zweite  Auflage  von  E.  Gildemeister.  Bearbeitet  im  Auf- 
trage  der  Firma  Schimmel  &  Co.  in  Miltitz  bei  Leipzig.  Erster 
Band.  Mit  zwei  Karten  und  Zahlreichen  Abbildungen.  Verlag  von 
Schimmel  &  Co.,  Miltitz  bei  Leipzig.  (Fur  den  Buchhandel :  L. 
Staackmann,  Leipzig),  19 10. 
It  is  now  a  little  more  than  ten  years  since  the  first  edition 
of  the  work  on  "  The  Ethereal  Oils,"  by  Gildemeister  and  Hoffmann, 
was  published  by  Schimmel  &  Co.  This  book  has  been  invaluable 
to  the  student  of  phytochemistry  as  well  as  the  dealer  and  analyst  of 
volatile  oils.  During  this  time  so  many  investigations  have  been 
carried  on  and  the  literature  has  been  so  enriched,  that  we  are 
indeed  fortunate  in  having  a  new  edition  comprising  these  advances. 
The  amount  of  material  gotten  together  by  Dr.  Gildemeister  was  so 
large  that  it  has  seemed  advisable  to  the  firm  of  Schimmel  &  Co.  to 
publish  the  work  in  two  volumes.  The  first  volume,  which  has  been 
received,  includes  the  historical  facts  concerning  the  individual 
oils  and  remains  much  the  same  as  originally  written  by  that  master 
of  historical  studies,  Dr.  Fred.  Hoffmann.  This  volume  also  con- 
tains a  description  of  the  principle  constituents  of  the  volatile  oils  and 
the  assay  methods  used  in  determining  them.  A  new  feature  is  the 
chapter  on  the  method  for  extracting  the  odorous  principles  from 
flowers,  through  extraction,  enfleurage,  and  maceration.  The  chap- 
ter on  "  the  theoretical  principles  involved  in  the  distillation  of 
ethereal  oils  and  the  separation  of  the  various  constituents  through 
this  process  "  has  been  omitted  from  this  volume  and  been  made 
into  a  distinct  volume  as  already  noted  in  this  Journal  (July,  p. 
345)- 
The  well-known  tables  of  the  first  volume  have  been  revised 
