Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
January,  1914.  / 
Book  Reviews. 
47 
the  agitation  will  undoubtedly  do  much  toward  insuring  a  more 
uniform  and  better  supply  of  recognized,  standard  drugs,  by  placing 
responsibility  for  the  identity  and  purity  of  drugs  and  preparations 
on  the  dispensing  pharmacist,  where  it  rightly  belongs.  By  ulti- 
mately restricting  the  number  of  drugs  and  preparations  used  it 
will  be  possible  to  provide  adequate  supervision  of  the  medicines  dis- 
pensed ;  and  thus  the  pharmacist  will  eventually  come  to  occupy  the 
place  he  rightly  deserves  as  an  important  factor  in  safeguarding 
public  health.  M.  I.  W. 
War  Department:  Office  of  the  Surgeon  General,  Bulletin 
No.  3.  Studies  of  Syphilis.  By  Charles  F.  Craig,  Captain,  Medical 
Corps,  U.  S.  Army,  and  Henry  J.  Nichols,  Captain,  Medical  Corps, 
U.  S.  Army,  with  introduction  by  Major  Frederick  F.  Russell, 
Medical  Corps,  U.  S.  Army. 
This  Bulletin,  published  for  the  information  of  medical  officers 
by  authority  of  the  act  of  Congress  approved  August  23,  191 2,  and 
with  the  approval  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  is  striking  evidence  of 
the  fact  that  the  wonderful  advances  made  in  the  last  decade  for  the 
diagnosis  and  treatment  of  syphilis  are  being  made  use  of  and  appre- 
ciated by  the  medical  men  of  the  army.  In  no  branch  of  medicine 
has  more  rapid  progress  been  made.  And,  as  pointed  out  in  the 
introduction,  "  it  is  noteworthy  that  medicine  is  indebted  to*  lab- 
.  oratory  workers  and  research  institutions,  and  not  to  the  practical 
syphilographers,  for  this  phenomenal  progress." 
Exclusive  of  the  introduction  the  Bulletin  consists  of  a  series  of 
seven  papers  commencing  with  a  study  of  the  Spirochceta  pallida, 
its  morphology  and  cultivation.  Under  the  head  of  immunity  the 
interesting  statement  is  brought  out  that  there  is  no  true  immunity 
following  an  infection  from  this  parasite.  A  person  once  infected 
and  cured  can  be  reinfected.  Opinions  contrary  to  this  were  long 
held  by  the  medical  profession. 
The  diagnosis  of  syphilis  by  the  complement  fixation  test,  or 
Wassermann  test,  as  it  is  more  generally  known,  is  gone  into  very 
fully.  That  this  test  has  proven  of  great  value  in  .the  army  for 
diagnosis  and  control  over  treatment  is  attested  by  the  experience 
gained  from  the  performance  of  12,000  reactions. 
Ehrlich's  great  discovery,  salvarsan  and  neosalvarsan,  naturally, 
have  been  used  and  the  behavior  of  these  arsenic  combinations  with 
the  benzol  ring,  in  the  treatment  of  syphilis  is  very  fully  gone  into. 
The  superiority  of  these  drugs  over  mercury  as  a  specific  is  clearly 
