Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
February,  19 17.  * 
Book  Reviews. 
89 
their  way  to  the  book  shelves  of  many  medical  and  pharmaceutical 
students.  J.  W.  Sturmer. 
Histology  of  Medicinal  Plants,  by  William  Mansfield,  A.M., 
Phar.D.,  Professor  of  Histology  and  Pharmacognosy,  College  of 
Pharmacy  of  the  City  of  New  York,  Columbia  University.  John 
Wiley  &  Sons,  Inc.,  New  York,  191 6. 
Vegetable  histology  is  an  exceedingly  important  branch  of  phar- 
macognosy. Dr.  Mansfield's  book,  evidently  intended  as  an  intro- 
ductory course  to  the  study  of  pharmacognosy,  should  be  welcomed 
to  the  field  because  it  shows  an  increasing  interest  in  that  subject 
rather  than  for  any  new  data  presented. 
The  book  is  divided  into  three  parts :  Part  I,  consisting  of  49 
pages,  is  a  brief  discussion  of  the  microscope  and  microscopic  tech- 
nique. The  illustrations  contained  in  this  portion  of  the  book  may 
be  found  in  the  catalogues  of  the  various  houses  dealing  in  micro- 
scopes. The  discussion  of  microscopic  technique  is  very  incomplete 
and  should  have  been  supplemented  by  references  to  some  of  the 
standard  works  on  this  subject. 
Part  II  includes  the  fundamental  consideration  of  tissues,  cells 
and  cell  contents,  classified  from  a  physiological  point  of  view. 
This  portion  of  the  book  is  profusely  illustrated  with  line  drawings, 
many  of  them  on  a  very  generous  scale,  and,  with  a  few  exceptions, 
well  done.  While  the  drawings  are  original,  the  subjects  have  been 
handled  by  a  number  of  previous  investigators.  In  some  cases  the 
drawings  are  incomplete,  which  will  cause  confusion  to  the  student. 
Plate  30,  illustrating  collenchyma,  and  plates  39  and  46,  showing 
root  hairs  and  sieve  tubes  respectively,  are  incomplete  and  mislead- 
ing, while  plate  51  conveys  an  entirely  false  impression,  owing  to  the 
dividing  lines  between  the  cells  being  omitted,  a  fault  even  more 
pronounced  in  plate  68.  Starch  grains  are' shown  with  a  granular 
or  dotted  surface,  which,  while  it  adds  to  the  attractiveness  of  the 
drawings,  should  be  discouraged.  The  author  classifies  bast  fibers 
into  a  number  of  more  or  less  well  defined  groups,  which  would  be 
useful,  if  nature  did  not  insist  upon  merging  one  into  another  by 
every  conceivable  variation.  Emphasis  is  placed  upon  the  study 
of  calcium  oxalate  crystals,  which  is  noteworthy  in  that  it  tends  to 
confirm  the  studies  of  Dr.  Kraemer,  published  in  a  paper  and  read  at 
the  St.  Louis  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association 
in  1 901. 
