Am.  Jour.  Pharrn.  \ 
February.  1907.  I 
Book  Review. 
97 
Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  Joseph  P.  Remington. 
Philadelphia  Branch  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association, 
Joseph  W.  England. 
Public  Health  Defence  League,  M.  I.  Wilbert. 
Member  ex  officio,  William  L.  Cliffe. 
M.  I.  Wilbert, 
Secretary  pro  tern. 
BOOK  REVIEW. 
A  Text-book  of  Materia  Medica,  Therapeutics,  and  Pharma- 
cology. By  George  F.  Butler,  Ph.G.,  M.D.,  Associate  Professor  of 
Therapeutics  in  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  Chicago. 
Fifth  edition,  thoroughly  revised  by  Smith  Ely  Jelliffe,  M.D.,  Ph.D., 
Professor  of  Pharmacognosy  and  Instructor  in  Materia  Medica  and 
Therapeutics  in  Columbia  University  (College  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons),  New  York.  Illustrated.  Philadelphia  and  London  :  W. 
B.  Saunders  Company,  1906. 
Butler's  Materia  Medica  has  been  well  received  for  years  and  has 
been  favorably  reviewed  before  in  this  Journal.  The  present  revi- 
sion is  the  work  of  Dr.  Jelliffe,  who  has  attempted  to  bring  the  book 
into  accord  with  the  new  (1905)  Pharmacopoeia,  and  the  practical 
results  of  the  newer  pharmacology.  While  it  is  claimed  that  the 
book  has  been  brought  into  accord  with  the  requirements  of  the  new 
U.S. P.,  we  notice  one  instance  where  the  new  standards  are  not  given. 
In  calx  chlorinata  it  is  stated  that  the  available  chlorine  is  35  per 
cent,  when  it  should  be  30  per  cent.  In  taking  the  definitions  of  the 
new  U.S. P.  it  might  have  have  been  well  to  have  included  all  of  the 
definition,  as  under  solution  of  hydrogen  dioxide,  where  the  statement 
as  given  in  the  U.S.P.  that  "  it  should  be  kept  in  a  cool  place  "  is 
omitted.  In  quoting  pharmacopceial  definitions  the  family  name  is 
uniformly  omitted.  Some  of  the  official  substances  are  also  appar- 
ently omitted,  as  chrysarobinum,  matico  and  Scutellaria.  It  is  a 
question  whether  this  book  would  not  be  of  greater  value  to 
the  student  if  the  pharmacopceial  text  were  entirely  omitted  and  the 
student  were  expected  to  consult  that  book  for  his  information  of 
pharmacopceial  substances.  "  The  arrangement  of  drugs  has  been 
so  changed  that  those  drugs  whose  predominant  action  is  in  one 
system  of  organs  of  the  body  are  grouped  together,  thus  suggesting 
