Am.  lour.  Phariu.  ) 
Sept  ,  1877.  ; 
Reviews,  etc. 
47/ 
leading  that  it  is  difficult  to  draw  the  line  of  demarcation  between  them  and  the 
fraudulent  substitutions  and  adulterations.  It  is  for  these  reasons  that  we  regard 
them  as  exerting  a  far  more  dangerous  effect  upon  both  medicine  and  pharmacy 
than  the  actual  frauds  or  nostrums  to  which  they  are  often  so  closely  related.  In 
prescribing  them,  physicians  should  remember  that  they  have  no  definite  knowledge 
•of  the  composition  of  these  articles,  and  that  with  very  few  exceptions,  the  informa- 
tion imparted  by  the  labels  or  circulars  as  to  the  composition  differs  in  no  way  from 
the  vague  statements  which  could  be  found  on  the  wrappers  of  the  sarsaparillas, 
buchus  and  other  nostrums,  which  at  some  time  or  other  enjoyed  great  popularity  5 
yet  which  conscientious  physician  would  have  prescribed  them  ? 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Exposition  Internationale  de  Philadelphiey  1876.  Rapport  sur  la  Pharmacie  par 
Achille  Jonas,  Pharmacien,  Delegue  du  Gowvernement  Beige  d  r Exposition  de  Phila- 
delphie.    Brussels,  1877.    8vo,  pp.  186. 
The  official  report  before  us,  which  was  rendered  to  the  government  of  Belgium 
by  Mr.  A.  Jonas,  gives  a  pretty  accurate  and  well-digested  account  of  the  pharma- 
ceutical exhibits  at  the  late  International  Exposition,  as  they  appeared  during  the  first 
two  months.  But  after  the  departure  of  the  author  from  Philadelphia  several 
important  collections  of  materia  medica  were  to  be  found  \  notably  was  this  the 
case  with  three  Asiatic  countries,  China,  Japan  and  the  Philippine  Islands,  which 
the  author  had  no  occasion  to  see. 
Die  dltesten  Heilmittel  aus  dent  Orient.    Von  Professor  Eduard  Schaer.  Schaff- 
hausen,  1877.    Pp.  24. 
The  ancient  remedies  from  the  orient. 
This  interesting  and  entertaining  lecture  was  delivered  at  Zurich  at  the  beginning 
of  the  scientific  courses  at  the  Swiss  Polytechnicum,  and  gives  interesting,  chiefly 
historical,  accounts  of  most  of  the  important  oriental  drugs. 
Quinquinas  de  Janja.    Par  Mr.  le  professeur  N.  Gille,  membre  de  Tacademie  royale 
de  medicine.    Anvers,  1877.    Pp.  12. 
The  Cinchonas  of  Java. 
We  learn  from  this  pamplet  that,  at  the  request  of  the  Belgian  authorities,  the 
Dutch  government  very  liberally  supplied  the  Brussels  school  of  veterinary  medi- 
cine with  a  complete  collection,  representing  the  cinchona  cultivation  at  Java ;  the 
report  before  us  gives  a  brief  account  of  the  same,  which  Prof.  Gille  laid  before  the 
Royal  Society  of  medical  and  natural  sciences  at  Brussels.    Those  who  have  seen 
