324 
Book  Reviews, 
f  Am.  Tour.  Pharm. 
1       July,  1 9 17. 
Materia  Medica  and  Pharmacology,  a  Manual  comprising  all 
Organic  and  Inorganic  Drugs  which  are  or  have  been  official  in  the 
United  States  Pharmacopoeia,  together  with  the  Important  Allied 
Species  and  Useful  Synthetics,  by  David  M.  R.  Culbreth,  Ph.G., 
M.D.,  Professor  of  Botany,  Materia  Medica  and  Pharmacognosy  in 
the  Maryland  College  of  Pharmacy,  Department  of  the  University  of 
Maryland,  Baltimore,  Aid.  Sixth  edition,  thoroughly  revised,  with 
492  illustrations.  Octavo,  cloth,  1001  pages,  price  $5.25  net.  Pub- 
lished by  Lea  and  Febiger,  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  191 7. 
This  familiar  textbook  on  material  medica  and  pharmacology 
has  been  thoroughly  revised  to  conform  to  the  Ninth  Decennial  Re- 
vision of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  and  also  includes  references  to  the 
important  drugs  and  preparations  now  included  in  the  National 
Formulary. 
The  arrangement  of  the  drugs  remains  strictly  the  same  as  that 
followed  in  previous  editions,  being  based  upon  the  principle  of 
associating  as  nearly  together  as  possible  those  substances,  organic 
and  inorganic,  which  have  a  common  or  allied  origin,  allowing  those 
next  related  to  follow  in  regular  order,  the  basal  or  parental  source 
thus  being  kept  paramount. 
Dosage  and  measurements  are  given  in  both  the  English  and 
metric  systems.  While  this  is  undoubtedly  a  convenience  to  some, 
it  is  a  disadvantage  to  the  teaching  of  medicine  and  pharmacy  in 
view  of  the  propaganda  favoring  the  use  of  the  metric  system  only, 
in  the  compounding,  prescribing  and  dispensing  of  medicines.  The 
sooner  authors  of  pharmaceutical  and  medical  textbooks  confine 
themselves  to  the  use  of  the  metric  system  the  sooner  will  it  be 
brought  into  universal  use.  The  Pharmacopoeia  and  National  For- 
mulary have  both  ceased  giving  quantities  of  ingredients  in  prep- 
arations and  dosage  in  the  apothecaries'  system  and  writers  of  text- 
books should  follow  this  example. 
We  note  that  the  abbreviation  Ml.  is  used  to  express  milliliter 
throughout  this  work,  whereas  the  official  substitute  for  Cc.  is  the 
coined  work  mil.  From  the  teacher's  point  of  view  this  is  particu- 
larly unfortunate  as  it  gives  the  student  consulting  the  official 
works  and  this  textbook  an  idea  that  any  abbreviation  will  do,  when 
all  the  energies  of  the  teacher  are  bent  toward  uniformity  in  this 
respect. 
In  the  table  on  page  945  under  "  Prescription  Writing "  the 
author  gives  ml.  as  the  abbreviation  for  milliliter  and  Ml.  as  the 
