EDITORIAL. 
287 
a  practical  therapeutist,  familiar  with  the  physiological  action  of  medicines, 
and  with  the  principles  on  which  their  curative  action  is  based  when  they 
are  administered  to  the  sick. 
Judged  by  these  rules,  "  The  American  Dispensatory,"  it  is  believed, 
will  be  found  wanting  :  the  deficiencies  arise  chiefly  from  the  lack  of  prac- 
tical science ;  the  author  has  the  energy,  the  perseverance,  the  ambition 
and  the  materials  requisite  to  the  structure  he  has  sought  to  raise,  but  he 
has  not  had  the  training  in  scientific  observation,  nor  dipped  sufficiently 
deep  into  the  source-springs  of  knowledge,  to  become  as  yet  a  master  work- 
man. We  say  this  in  no  unkind  spirit ;  on  the  contrary,  we  believe  Dr. 
King's  work,  as  a  collection  of  facts  bearing  on  the  American  Materia 
Medica,  possesses  very  considerable  value,  and  is  full  of  useful  hints  for  inves- 
tigation. We  have  heard  it  objected  that  the  therapeutical  portion  of  the 
work  is  more  a  detail  of  experience  in  cures  by  the  several  agents  than  a 
lucid  expose  of  the  medical  properties  and  modes  of  action  of  those 
agents,  but  this  mode  of  presenting  the  subject  may  be  intentional,  and 
suited  to  the  practitioners  to  whom  it  is  more  specially  addressed.  We 
have  given  a  pretty  thorough  glance  over  the  first  portion  of  the  book,  and 
have  found  much  to  interest  us,  numerous  instances  where  pruning  would 
be  useful,  and  some  errors  incident  to  hasty  compilation  or  to  misappre- 
hension of  the  meaning  of  authors.  We  have  made  notes  of  these,  and 
propose  in  a  future  number  to  give  some  account  of  the  pharmaceutical 
portion.  Meanwhile,  we  feel  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  this  work  contains 
much  that  is  useful  to  apothecaries  as  well  as  physicians.  It  is  well  printed 
on  good  paper,  and  may  be  had  at  Armstrong's,  722  Market  st. 
Journal  and  Transactions  of  the  Maryland  College  of  Pharmacy,  published 
by  authority  of  the  College,  under  the  supervision  of  a  Publishing  Com- 
mittee, consisting  of  G.  W  Andrews,  W.  S.  Thompson,  Charles  Caspari, 
J.  Jacob  Smith  and  Alphaeus  P.  Sharp.    Edited  by  W.  S.  Thompson. 
New  Series.    March,  1859.    Vol.  1,  No.  1,  pp.  48,  octavo. 
Our  Baltimore  cotemporary,  after  the  experience  of  last  year  as  a  gratui- 
tous issue,  has  come  out  and  joined  the  body  of  regular  Pharmaceutical 
Journals  as  a  Quarterly  of  48  pages.    She  is  welcomed  right  heartily,  and 
with  so  fair  a  beginning,  it  will  be  safe  to  augur  for  her  a  successful  future. 
The  tone  of  the  Maryland  Journal  is  of  the  true  kind,  and  with  a  corps  of 
earnest  workers  to  support  her,  until  the  radicles  of  her  influence  extend 
into  the  soil  of  the  profession,  so  as  to  draw  sustenance  from  beyond  the 
College  precincts,  she  will  be  safely  established. 
Trials  of  a  Public  Benefactor,  as  illustrated  in  the  discovery  of  Etheriza- 
tion. By  Nathan  P.  Rice,  M.D.  New  York,  Pudney  &  Russell,  1859, 
pp.  460,  12m  \ 
This  book,  written  by  a  medical  friend  of  Dr.  W.  T.  G.  Morton,  of 
Boston,  from  documents  and  information  supplied  by  the  latter,  gives  a 
