266 
Reviews,  etc. 
f  Am.. lour.  Pharm^ 
1      May,  1882. 
ing  the  illustrated  objects  500  or  1,000  diameters  in  most  eases.  The  illus- 
trations comprise  starches,  blood,  urinary  products,  diatoms,  animal  tissues, 
parasites  and  a  limited  number  of  vegetable  drugs.  They  are  well  execu- 
ted, and  give  a  clear  and  faithful  view  of  the  characters  of  the  articles- 
selected  for  examination. 
The  Practice  of  Commercial  Organic  Analysis.  A  Treatise  on  the  Proper- 
ties, Proximate  Analytical  Examination  and  Modes  of  Assaying  the 
Various  Organic  Chemicals  and  Products  employed  In  the  Arts,  Manu- 
factures, Medicine,  etc.,  with  Concise  Methods  for  the  Detection  and 
Determination  of  their  Impurities,  Adulterations  and  Products  of  De- 
composition. By  Alfred  H.  Allen,  F.I.C.,  F.C.S.,  Lecturer  on  Chemis- 
try at  the  School  of  Medicine  and  the  Wesley  College,  Sheffield,  etc. 
Vol  II.  Philadelphia:  Presley  Blakiston,  1882.  8vo,  pp.  561.  Price, 
$5.00. 
The  contents  of  the  present  volume  evidently  embrace  the  results  of 
practical  experience,  and  of  careful  scrutiny  of  the  extensive  literature  on 
the  subject  of  commercial  analysis.  The  branches  treated  of  comprise 
hydrocarbons,  fixed  oils  and  fats,  sugars,  starch  and  its  isomers,  alkaloids 
and  organic  bases. 
The  first  section  embraces  the  paraffins,  terpenes,  benzene  and  homo- 
logues,  naphthalene  and  anthracene.  For  the  soft  paraffin  or  petroleum 
jelly  the  designation  vaselene  is  suggested  ;  with  the  synonyms  cosmolene 
and  saxolene,  a  change  in  spelling  which  renders  the  termination  in 
accord  with  that  scientifically  adopted  for  analogous  comiDOunds.  The 
essential  oils,  camphors  and  resins  are  briefly  considered  among  the  ter- 
penes, embracing  mainly  oil  of  turpentine,  turpentines  and  derivatives* 
Bees'  wax,  spermaceti  and  soap  are  very  naturally  considered  among  the 
fats,  where  we  miss,  however,  allusion  to  cacao  butter,  which  in  American 
pharmacy  is  of  not  insignificant  importance.  In  the  chapter  on  starches^ 
Prof.  Prescott's  lucid  scheme  of  the  proximate  analysis  of  plants  has  been 
interpolated,  which  we  think  would  have  found  a  more  appropriate  place 
in  an  appendix.  The  last  chapter  is  mostly  devoted  to  the  medicinal  alka- 
loids; but  aniline  and  its  homologues  and  basic  derivatives  are  likewise 
considered,  without,  however,  entering  minutely  into  the  dyes  and  color- 
ing matters,  these  being  purposely  omitted,  as  were  also  the  animal  pro- 
ducts, like  milk,  urine,  blood,  albumen,  etc.  A  distinction  is  made 
between  some  of  the  alkaloids,  and  there  is  evidently  a  typographical 
error  in  section  B,  where  it  should  read  "the  pupil  is  contracted.''^  The 
alkaloids  mentioned  there  are  morphine,  physostigmine,  strychnine  and 
aconitine,  the  last  one  of  which,  we  believe,  produces  only  a  transient 
contraction. 
It  will  be  observed  that  the  scope  of  the  work  is  of  especial  application 
to  the  wants  of  the  pharmacist,  who,  like  the  professional  analyst,  will  find 
it  a  very  useful  work,  calculated  to  give  the  best  practical  means  for  deter- 
mining the  purity  and  identity  of  the  compounds  and  products  enume- 
rated. The  style  is  clear  and  free  from  superfluities,  and  very  rarely  needs 
further  qualification,  as,  for  instance,  on  page  55,  where  it  is  stated  that 
"most  of  the  oxygenated  and  sulphuretted  essential  oils  have  been 
