Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
February,  1897.  J 
Reviews. 
117 
branch  of  organic  chemistry.  It  is  a  great  credit  to  both  author  and  translator, 
and  we  look  forward  with  interest  to  the  appearance  of  the  second  half. 
Commercial  Organic  Analysis.  A  treatise  on  the  properties,  proximate 
analytical  examination,  and  modes  of  assaying  the  various  organic  chemicals 
and  products  employed  in  the  arts,  manufactures,  medicine,  etc.,  with  concise 
methods  for  the  detection  and  determination  of  their  impurities,  adulterations, 
and  products  of  decomposition.  By  Alfred  H.  Allen,  F.I.C.,  F.C.S.  Second 
Edition.    Vol.  Ill,  Part  III.    Philadelphia  :  P.  Blakiston,  Son  &  Co.  1896. 
The  installment  of  this  work  now  published  is  nominally  Part  III  of  Volume 
III,  though  practically  it  forms  Volume  V  of  the  book.  One  more  volume, 
treating  of  proteids  and  albuminoid  compounds,  will  complete  the  work.  The 
part  now  issued  treats  of  the  less  important  vegetable  alkaloids,  left  over  from 
Part  II;  non-basic  vegetable  bitter  principles;  animal  bases,  including 
ptomaines  ;  animal  acids,  and  cyanogen  compounds.  Although  considered  by 
the  author  as  less  important  alkaloids,  still  there  are  among  them  those  derived 
from  ipecac,  colchicum,  calabar  bean  and  jaborandi,  which  makes  them  of  con- 
siderable importance. 
The  same  systematic  treatment  has  been  accorded  these  alkaloids  that  was 
given  to  those  in  Part  II,  and  it  serves  to  make  the  two  volumes  the  most 
important  works  on  this  subject  in  the  English  language.  About  one  hundred 
pages  are  devoted  to  the  non-basic  vegetable  bitter  principles.  The  literature 
concerning  these  important  compounds  is  very  voluminous,  and  the  author  has 
sifted  that  so  as  to  make  it  available  to  other  chemists.  Not  the  least  in  this 
class  is  his  condensed  statement  concerning  the  constituents  of  digitalis,  about 
which  so  much  has  been  written  that  in  many  minds  the  whole  subject  is 
decidedly  mixed. 
Under  the  animal  bases  we  have  the  whole  subject  of  estimating  urea  as 
well  as  the  latest  information  concerning  creatine  and  creatinine;  these  have 
also  been  exhaustively  treated  in  the  author's  Chemistry  of  the  Urine,  published 
over  a  year  ago. 
The  whole  book  is  fully  equal  in  value  to  its  predecessors,  and  the  final 
volume  is  looked  forward  to  with  interest. 
Popular  German  Names  of  Domestic  Drugs  and  Medicines  (Volks- 
thiimliche  deutsche  Arzneimittel-Namen).  Compiled  by  Dr.  Fr.  Hoffmann. 
Revised  and  enlarged  edition.  Pharmaceutical  Review  Publishing  Company, 
Milwaukee.  1896. 
Dr.  Hoffmann  has  performed  a  real  service  for  the  American  druggist  by  com- 
piling this  list  of  popular  German  names  and  arranging  them  so  as  to  be 
available  to  every  one  but  the  most  stupid.  In  nearly  all  parts  of  the  United 
States  the  pharmacist  is  confronted  in  his  daily  practice  with  the  German 
names  of  many  of  the  simpler  drugs.  The  book  can  be  had  of  the  Pharma- 
ceutical Review  Publishing  Company,  at  the  moderate  cost  of  fifty  cents  per 
copy. 
Le  Commerce  Actuel  de  l'Herboristerie  dans  une  Region  du 
Languedoc.    Par  le  Dr.  Louis  Planchon. 
Reprint  from  Journal  de  Pharmacie  et  de  Chimie,  1896.  An  interesting  con- 
tribution to  the  local  flora  of  a  region  very  rich  in  medicinal  plants. 
