508 
Reviews. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
X     October,  1900. 
which  for  one  reason  or  another  are  not  in  the  Pharmacopoeia. 
Medicines  concern  not  only  the  physician  and  apothecary,  but  the 
people  even  more  directly,  and  the  development  of  the  National 
Formulary  should  be  in  the  interests  of  the  people  who  will  not  only 
call  upon  the  physician,  but  who  will  continue  to  "  doctor  "  them- 
selves. It  would  be  well,  therefore,  if  as  pharmacopoeial  principles 
shape  themselves,  the  scope  of  the  National  Formulary  be  increased 
and  its  influence  extended  so  that  apothecaries  can  supply  accord- 
ing to  some  established  standard  the  non-pharrnacopceial  drugs  and 
medicines  which  some  physicians  may  prescribe  or  the  people  order. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
The  Oil-Chemist's  Hand.Book.  By  Erastus  Hopkins,  A.M., 
Chemist  in  charge  of  U.  S.  Laboratories,  Boston.  New  York: 
John  Wiley  &  Sons. 
The  title  of  this  book  is  not  quite  exact  in  its  reference  to  the 
subject-matter  treated.  It  is  only  when  we  open  at  Chapter  I  that 
we  meet  the  statement  "  fixed  oils  and  fats  are  here  considered  ;  the 
hydrocarbon  oils  are  considered  only  so  far  as  they  enter  into 
combinations  with  fixed  oils  and  fats  as  adulterants."  The  petro- 
leum refiner  or  chemist  specially  engaged  in  the  mineral  oil 
industry  ordering  the  book  by  title  would  naturally  feel  dis- 
appointed on  opening  it  and  finding  the  statement  quoted. 
The  book  is  made  up  of  two  parts — a  series  of  tables,  giving  the 
physical  and  chemical  constants  of  the  fixed  oils,  fats  and  waxes, 
and  descriptions  of  the  physical  and  chemical  methods  for  the 
analysis  of  these  materials.  The  first  of  these  parts  is  much  the 
most  valuable  portion  of  the  book,  as  the  author  has  gathered  with 
great  industry,  and,  as  far  as  we  have  had  occasion  to  compare, 
with  accuracy,  such  analytical  figures  with  regard  to  the  oils  as  can 
be  put  in  tabular  form.  The  tables  cover  also  quite  an  amount 
of  information  such  as  statements  as  to  source  of  oils,  process  of 
manufacture,  characteristic  tests,  adulterations,  uses,  etc.,  of  course 
in  very  condensed  form. 
The  second  part  of  the  book,  that  describing  methods,  suffers 
from  the  effort  at  condensation,  and  in  some  sections  is  far  from 
being  full  enough  for  satisfactory  working.    If  the  corresponding 
