554 
Correspondence. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
*•    November,  191 7. 
List  of  active  member  states  follows :  Alabama,  Arizona,  Arkan- 
sas, Colorado,  Connecticut,  Delaware,  District  of  Columbia,  Florida, 
Georgia,  Idaho,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Kentucky,  Louisi- 
ana, Maine,  Maryland,  Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Mississippi,  Mis- 
souri, Montana,  Nebraska,  Nevada,  New  Hampshire,  New  Mexico, 
North  Dakota,  Oklahoma,  Oregon,  Pennsylvania,  South  Carolina, 
South  Dakota,  Tennessee,  Texas,  Utah,  Vermont,  Virginia,  West 
Virginia,  Wisconsin. 
Full  information  may  be  had  by  addressing  this  office. 
Very  truly  yours, 
H.  C.  Christensen, 
Secy.  N.  A.  B.  P. 
BOOK  REVIEWS. 
Hand  Book  of  Pharmacognosy,  by  Otto  H.  Wall,  M.D.,  Ph.G. 
Fourth  Edition.  St.  Louis:  C.  V.  Mosby  Company,  1917.  629 
pages. 
According  to  the  author,  the  object  of  this  book  is  mainly  to 
serve  as  notes  on  pharmacognosy  for  students  in  colleges  of  phar- 
macy, for  students  preparing  for  State  Board  of  Pharmacy  ex- 
aminations and  for  everyday  exigencies  of  the  retail  pharmacist. 
The  following  subjects  are  treated:  Fundamental  Studies;  Spe- 
cial Studies ;  Classifications ;  Method  of  Study  and  Animal  and 
Vegetable  Drugs,  which  are  treated  in  86  groups. 
The  author  discussed  the  relative  merits  of  the  alphabetical, 
botanical,  therapeutic,  physiologic  and  therapeutic  combined,  or- 
ganoleptic and  physical  classifications  of  drugs,  and  places  most  con- 
fidence in  the  classification  based  upon  physical  characteristics. 
In  fact,  this  is  the  classification  adopted  for  the  treatment  of  drugs 
which  follows. 
There  are  many  points  in  favor  of  this  viewpoint  although  the 
writer  has  found  the  use  of  a  system  based  partly  upon  natural  re- 
lationship as  far  as  possible  and  partly  upon  physical  characteristics 
of  drugs  to  be  productive  of  more  interest  on  the  part  of  the  student. 
In  this  treatment  of  the  various  vegetable  and  animal  drugs  the 
author  fails  to  consider  drugs  in  a  powdered  or  granulated  condi- 
tion.   This  point  of  view  would  undoubtedly  be  correct  were  all 
