620 
Book  Reviews. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
<-    December,  191 7. 
is  given  to  fully  justify  the  author  in  his  statement  that  a  knowledge 
of  these  principles  will  enable  the  student  to  read  the  Latin  edition 
of  the  German  pharmacopoeia. 
Part  II  contains  the  vocabularies  and  reading  exercises.  These 
cover  sixty  pages.  Professor  Wall  believes  that  by  the  separation 
of  the  grammar  from  the  exercises  and  vocabularies  the  student 
can  more  clearly  grasp  the  essentials  of  the  language  and  escape  the 
confusion  of  mind  which  results  from  having  the  grammar,  vocabu- 
laries and  exercises  intermixed.  Many  teachers  will  not  agree  with 
him  in  his  view,  believing  that  forms  and  constructions  are  learned 
more  rapidly  by  constant  practice  in  their  use  in  sentences.  In  fact 
the  practice  of  interspersing  grammar  work  among  the  reading  exer- 
cise is  almost  invariably  followed  by  authors  of  beginners'  books  in 
Latin. 
Part  III,  consisting  of  eight  pages,  is  devoted  to  a  comparison 
of  Latin  words  with  their  English  derivatives  and  to  a  brief  study 
of  the  formation  of  words,  and  is  designed  to  assist  the  student  in 
acquiring  a  Latin  vocabulary. 
No  general  vocabulary  is  given,  but  numerous  short  vocabularies 
totaling  some  nine  hundred  words  are  scattered  through  Part  II. 
Even  with  these  it  is  necessary  for  the  student  "to  refer  to  a  dic- 
tionary for  the  meaning  of  many  of  the  words  in  the  reading  exer- 
cises." This  arrangement  of  vocabularies  does  not  seem  as  satis- 
factory as  the  method  usually  followed  and  the  use  of  a  separate 
lexicon  certainly  does  not  tend  to  a  saving  of  time  in  the  preparation 
of  the  lessons,  In  our  opinion  the  book  though  containing  some 
good  features  is  hardly  likely  to  displace  the  Latin  textbooks  already 
in  use  in  colleges  of  pharmacy. 
W.  S.  Truesdell. 
The  Prescription,  by  Otto  A.  Wall,  Ph.G.,  M.D.  Fourth  and 
Revised  Edition.   C.  V.  Mosby  Co.,  St.  Louis,  191 7. 
So  great  is  the  wealth  of  material  contained  in  this  book  of  two 
hundred  and  seventy-three  pages,  that  one  finds  it  difficult  to  treat 
it  adequately  in  the  limited  space  of  the  customary  review. 
In  the  treatment  of  his  subject  the  author  has  divided  it  into 
two  grand  divisions,  one  treating  of  permanent  prescriptions  and  the 
other  of  extemporaneous  prescriptions.  The  classification,  perma- 
nent, is  applied  to  such  formulas  as  are  contained  in  standard  works, 
as  the  various  pharmacopoeias  and  formularies. 
