Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
April,  1887.  J" 
Reviews  and  Bibliographical  Notices.  221 
ards  the  bachelorship  in  arts  is  required.  The  studies  at  the  school  com- 
prise lectures  and  laboratory  work  during  the  whole  three  years,  and  an  ex- 
amination must  be  passed  at  the  end  of  each  year  in  the  branches  taught, 
namely  in  organic  chemistry,  chemical  analysis,  toxicology,  physics,  phar- 
macy, materia  medica,  mineralogy,  hydrology,  botany  and  zoology. 
All  these  subjects  except  systematic  chemistry,  physics  and  zoology  are 
included  in  the  two  volumes  referred  to  above ;  and  they  are  arranged  in 
the  following  order :  Chemical  analysis  with  the  well-known  scheme  for 
the  separation  and  recognition  of  the  metallic  elements  occupies  74  pages. 
The  reactions  of  the  most  prominent  alkaloids  are  given  ;  also  the  means 
for  recognizing  the  inorganic  and  the  more  common  organic  acids,  and  the 
behavior  of  the  various  substances  before  the  blowpipe.  This  is  followed  by 
toxicology,  which  chapter,  comprising  114  pages,  is  mainly  devoted  to  the 
chemical  processes  for  the  detection  of  poisons  ;  the  toxic  doses  and  anti- 
dotes are  also  mentioned,  and  attention  is  drawn  to  the  necessity  of  search- 
ing for  vegetable  and  animal  fragments  in  case  the  poisoning  occurred 
through  poisonous  plants  or  through  cantharides. 
The  last  240  pages  of  the  first  volume  are  devoted  to  "  Pharmacy,"  and 
treat  of  pharmaceutical  operations  and  pharmaceutical  preparations.  The 
latter  are  arranged  under  medicaments  for  internal  use  and  for  external 
use,  and  the  former  are  again  divided  into  such  prepared  by  solution  in  wa- 
ter, alcohol,  ether,  wine,  vinegar  and  beer,  or  by  distillation,  evaporation 
and  in  other  various  ways.  This  part  of  the  book  contains  the  formulas  for 
all  the  galenical  preparations  of  the  new  French  Codex. 
The  second  volume  opens  with  a  chapter  on  the  microscope  and  its  uses, 
including  the  preparation  of  objects,  staining,  preservation,  measuring, 
chemical  testing,  etc.  It  is  primarily  intended  as  an  introduction  to  the 
next  chapter  on  vegetable  histology,  in  which  the  formation  of  cells,  the 
various  tissues  and  the  anatomical  structure  of  roots,  stems  and  leaves  are 
considered.  Under  organography,  the  various  organs  of  nutrition  and  of 
reproduction  are  described  and  their  functions  explained.  Next  follows 
systematic  botany,  with  the  orders  arranged  principally  according  to  De 
Candolle;  the  botanical  descriptions  are  brief,  the  most  striking  character- 
istics being  pointed  out,  except  in  the  case  of  medicinal  plants  indigenous 
to  France,  which  are  described  somewhat  more  minutely. 
After  the  brief  discussion  of  some  geological  questions  and  the  explana- 
tion of  crystallography,  mineralogy  is  taken  up,  the  minerals  being  con- 
cisely described  according  to  composition,  crystalline  form,  density,  hard- 
ness, fracture  and  other  physical  properties,  and  their  uses  are  indicated. 
The  chapter  on  hydrology  treats  of  water  in  its  various  forms,  including 
mineral  waters  and  their  analysis,  and  it  is  followed  by  the  "Natural  His- 
tory of  Simple  Drugs."  The  arrangement  of  the  animal  and  vegetable 
drugs  is  according  to  their  origin,  so  that  in  the  latter  case  we  have  a  repe- 
tition of  the  botanical  classification  in  another  part  of  the  same  volume, 
but  no  botanical  descriptions,  the  drugs  themselves  being  briefly  described, 
together  with  their  important  constituents  and  their  uses. 
