Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1914. 
Book  Reviews. 
223 
BOOK  REVIEWS. 
Pharmaceutical  Botany.  By  Heber  W.  Youngken,  Assistant 
Professor  of  Botany  and  Pharmacognosy  at  the  Medico-Chirnrgical 
College,  Philadelphia.    P.  Blakiston's  Son  &  Co.,  Philadelphia. 
To  speak  of  this  little  book  of  less  than  a  hundred  pages  as  a 
dictionary  or  a  glossary  is  not  to  belittle  its  value  to  the  student.  The 
illustrations,  as,  for  example,  those  on  stem  and  leaf  structure,  are 
especially  well  chosen,  and  their  pictorial  value  is  worth  many  words 
of  text,  which,  of  course,  is  not  a  factor  of  this  book.  From  almost 
any  aspect  of  thought  the  book  seems  like  a  list  of  terms,  but  these 
terms  are  well  arranged  and  with  a  good  regard  to  system.  The 
desire  to  make  the  definitions  brief  has  made  them  in  many  cases 
almost  meaningless  except  just  as  a  reminder  to  one  who  already 
knows  what  the  term  means. 
As  a  whole,  the  acknowledged  desire  of  the  author  has  been  well 
attained,  but  there  is  a  question  whether  such  an  object  is  especially 
advisable.  A  student  is  apt  to*  be  just  as  human  as  the  average  per- 
son with  a  consequent  eagerness  to  have  before  him  a  volume  which 
is  "  readable  "  even  though  it  is  for  purposes  of  study.  The  feeling 
arises  in  us,  as  we  look  over  the  volume  in  hand,  that  it  is  a  mighty 
nice  little  book  to  turn  to  once  in  a  while,  but  that  it  would  rather 
strain  our  devotion  to  science  if  we  were  called  upon  to  use  it  as  a 
text-book  from  which  to  gain  our  first  insight  into  a  new  subject. 
A.  K.  Lobeck. 
Annual  Reprint  of  the  Reports  of  the  Council  on  Phar- 
macy and  Chemistry  of  the  American  Medical  Association 
for  1913,  with  the  Comments  that  have  appeared  in  the  Journal. 
"  The  more  strictly  scientific  parts  of  the  reports,  both  from  lack 
of  space  and  because  of  their  technical  nature,  have  been  abstracted 
or  entirely  omitted  from  the  reports  as  published  in  the  Journal. 
Believing  that  these  scientific  investigations  should  be  available  to 
scientists  in  general,  especially  to  chemists,  pharmacologists,  and 
others  interested  in  medicine,  the  Council  has  authorized  the  prep- 
aration of  this  volume,  containing  the  complete  reports  of  the  Coun- 
cil adopted  prior  to  January  1,  19 14,  as  well  as  the  comments  which 
have  appeared  at  the  time  of  publication." 
These  reports  are  a  valuable  addition  to  the  literature  that  has 
