AmseJPtr'J87h8arm-}  Reviews,  etc.  46 3 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Annual  Reports  of  the  Supervising  Surgeon-General  of  the  Marine-Hospital  Service  of 
the  United  States  for  the  fiscal  years  1876  and  1877.  John  M.  Woodworth,  M.D. 
Washington:  Government  Printing  Office.    1878.    8vo,  pp.  213. 
As  in  former  years,  the  report  of  Surgeon-General  Woodworth  contains  an  account 
of  the  operations  of  the  Marine-Hospital  Service,  and  statistics  relating  to  the 
finances  and  economic  exhibit,  as  well  as  to  the  medical  and  surgical  service  per- 
formed. The  appendix  contains,  as  usual,  a  number  of  valuable  papers.  The 
most  important  for  pharmacists  is  one  by  Professor  Oscar  Oldberg,  entitled  "  Metric 
weights  and  measures  for  medical  and  pharmacal  purposes,"  in  which  the  advan- 
tages of  the  metric  system  are  very  clearly  set  forth,  and  which  has  led  to  its  adop- 
tion by  the  Marine-Hospital  Service,  as  we  have  informed  our  readers  on  a  former 
occasion  (page  364).  We  may  state  here  that  several  medical  journals  in  the  United 
States  have  likewise  adopted  it  and  now  print  all  formulas  and  doses  in  that  system. 
The  other  papers  contained  in  this  volume  are  the  following:  Physical  examina- 
tion of  seamen,  by  Surg.  P.  H.  Bailhache  ;  River  exposure  and  its  effects  upon  the 
lungs,  by  Surg.  Walter  Wyman.;  Yellow  fever  in  Savannah  in  1876,  by  Assistant 
Surg.  Geo  H.  Stone;  Yellow  fever  in  Savannah  and  New  Brunswick,  Ga.,  in  1876,, 
by  Assistant  Surg.  H.  Smith  ;  Yellow  fever  at  Fernandina  in  1877,  by  Surg.  Rob. 
D.  Murray. 
On  the  Therapeutic  Forces:  an  effort  to  consider  the  action  of  medicines  in  the  light 
of  the  modern  doctrine  of  the  conservation  of  force.  By  Thos.  J.  Mays,  M.D., 
member  of  the  Luzerne  county  Medical  Society,  etc.  Philadelphia :  Lindsay  & 
Blakiston.    1878.    Pp.  143.    Price,  $1.25. 
The  author  states  in  the  preface  that  he  has  firmly  espoused  the  belief  that  the 
action  of  medicines  in  the  animal  body  is,  like  everything  else,  amenable  to 
unchanging  laws,  and  that  it  is  our  duty  to  unravel  and  elucidate  these  laws.  The 
view  which  the  author  favors  is  expressed  in  the  title. 
The  introductory  chapters  treat  of  therapeutical  forces  in  general,  and  discuss 
more  particularly  the  subjects  of  tissue-waste,  nitrogenous  foods  as  tissue-builders 
and  non-nitrogenous  food  as  force-producers.  The  tissue-builders  or  constructive 
agents  do  not  strictly  fall  within  the  scope  of  the  essay,  which  is  confined  to  those 
agents  or  forces  tending  to  modify  the  molecular  activity  of  the  body.  This 
activity  may  be  accelerated  both  by  chemical  and  mechanical  forces  ;  but  rapidity 
of  molecular  motion  and  health  are  not  synonymous,  and  there  must  naturally  be  a 
point  where  this  activity  can  be  pushed  over  the  bounds  of  health  into  those  of 
disease. 
Chapter  III  treats  of  the  chemical  stimulants,  namely,  fats  and  oils,  which  are 
wrongly  classed  as  hydrocarbons,  carbohydrates,  alcohol,  phosphorus,  oxygen. 
The  action  of  the  mechanical  stimulants  is  considered  in  the  following  two 
chapters.  In  this  class  are  ranked  quinia,  quassia,  berberis,  columba,  gentiana, 
nectandra,  ammonia,  iodine  and  iodides,  cold,  opium  and  those  medicinal  substances 
known  as  counter-irritants,  such  as  croton  oil,  cantharides,  mustard,  etc.    These  are 
