Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
November,  19 17.  f 
Book  Reviews. 
555 
commerce  in  drugs  restricted  to  those  medicaments  in  an  entire  or 
nearly  entire  form.  However,  he  fails  to  take  into  account  that  by 
far  the  greater  number  of  drugs  handled  by  the  average  pharmacist 
are  in  the  powdered  or  granular  form. 
The  statement  is  made  that  the  study  of  powdered  drugs  is  not, 
strictly  speaking,  part  of  pharmacognosy.  To  this  the  writer  de- 
sires to  take  issue.  Can  it  be  possible  that  a  powdered  drug  is  not 
a  commercial  form  of  drug?  Is  not  the  consideration  of  commercial 
forms  of  drugs  one  of  the  most  important  phases  of  pharmacognosy  ? 
The  figures  of  whole  crude  drugs  for  the  most  part  are  excellent, 
and  will  prove  very  helpful  in  aiding  the  student  identify  the  drugs 
in  this  condition.  The  same  cannot  be  said  for  the  illustrations  of 
sections.  In  few  instances  have  the  parts  of  these  been  indi- 
cated in  the  figures,  and  in  most  cases  no  mention  of  histological 
details  characteristic  of  the  sections  has  been  made  in  the  text  ac- 
companying them.  The  experience  of  many  has  shown  that  figures 
mean  very  little  if  not  accompanied  by  proper  explanations. 
Under  the  caption,  "  Fresh  Fleshy  Fruits,"  the  raspberry  is  cited 
as  an  aggregate  or  multiple  fruit.  Since  this  fruit  is  the  product 
of  the  ripening  of  the  many  carpels  of  one  flower  on  their  receptacle, 
it  must  be  solely  an  aggregate  fruit,  for  a  multiple  fruit  is  the 
product  of  the  ripening  of  a  flower  cluster  (inflorescence). 
Under  another  caption,  vanilla  is  treated  as  a  pod,  while,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  vanilla  fruit  is  a  one-celled  capsule  formed  by 
the  union  of  three  carpellary  leaves.  Again  under  the  headings 
Rhamnns  Purshia-na  and  Frangula  respectively,  the  statement  is 
made  that  each  of  these  barks  must  be  kept  for  at  least  one  year 
after  collecting,  because  the  fresh  bark  is  too  acrid  and  produces 
griping.  It  has  been  satisfactorily  demonstrated,  however,  that  the 
griping  principles  of  both  of  these  drugs  can  be  destroyed  by  heat- 
ing the  barks  at  ioo°  C.  for  forty-eight  hours. 
Moreover,  in  the  consideration  of  the  various  kinds  of  starches 
no  mention  is  made  concerning  the  range  in  size  of  the  starch  grains. 
Since  the  forms  of  starch  grains  in  many  species  of  plants  belong- 
ing to  the  same  family  are  closely  similar,  it  would  seem  impera- 
tive to  know  the  range  in  size  in  terms  of  mikrons  for  the  starch 
grains  discussed  in  order  to  aid  in  distinguishing  them  from  those 
of  other  closely  allied  species. 
Finally,  it  is  disappointing  to  find  so  little  space  devoted  to  the 
•consideration  of  adulterants  of  drugs,  especially  since  reports  from 
