^6°™  ^™'}  Reviews  and  Bibliographical  Notices.  569 
tinge  throughout.  Unless  this  grass  lily  has  been  confused  with  an  alien  and 
externally  similar  weed — namely,  Agrostocrinum  stypandroides — we  have  again, 
a  plant  which,  with  capriciousness,  has  hitherto  baffled  our  toxicologic  experi- 
ments Anguillaria  and  Burchardia,  which  early  in  the  spring  sprinkle  their 
pretty  blossoms  so  universally  over  the  pastures  of  the  whole  of  extra  tropic 
Australia,  produce,  so  I  have  ascertained,  innocuous  bulbs,  although  belonging 
to  a  tribe  of  plants  which  includes  the  dreadfully  deleterious  veratrums  and 
sabadilla.' " 
KEVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Ueber  MoleMllverbindungen  nach  festen  Verhaltnissen.  Yon  Dr.  Alexander 
Naumann,  a.  o.  Professor  an  der  Universitat  Giessen.  Heidelberg:  Carl 
Winter's  Universitats — Buchhandlung,  1872.    8vo.    pp.  64. 
On  molecular  compounds  in  constant  proportions. 
This  memoir,  which  was  published  several  months  ago,  but  has  only  lately 
reached  us,  is  an  argument  in  favor  of  the  unchangeable  quantivalence  of  the 
elementary  atoms  as  ascertained  from  compounds  which  may  be  obtained  in 
the  gaseous  form  without  decomposition.  In  this  theory  the  author  finds  the 
surest  basis  for  explaining  chemical  compositions  and  processes,  although  he 
acknowledges  that  certain  facts  still  require  careful  investigations  before  they 
can  be  satisfactorily  explained,  a  difficulty  which  is  readily  overcome  by  the 
theory  of  changeable  quantivalence.  The  deductions  are  drawn  from  a  num- 
ber of  physico-chemical  observations,  mostly  made  within  the  last  decade. 
The  essay  is  a  valuable  contribution  towards  solving  the  questions  of  the  con- 
stancy of  the  quantivalence  of  atoms  and  of  the  compounds  of  molecules  ;  it  is 
written  in  a  clear  style,  and  the  modern  literature  has  received  due  attention. 
Jahresbericht  uber  die  Fortschritte  der  Pharmacognosie  Pliarmacie  und  Toxi- 
cologic, herausgegeben  von  Med. — Rath  Dr.  Wiggers  Prof,  in  Gottingen,  und 
Dr.  A.  Husemann,  Prof,  in  Chur.  Neue  Folge.  6.  Jahrgang.  1871.  G-t- 
tiugen  :  Vandenhoeck  &  Ruprecht's  Verlag.    1872.    pp.  591. 
Annual  report  on  the  Progress  of  Pharmacognosy,  Pharmacy  and  Toxi- 
cology, for  1871. 
This  annual  is  so  well  known  and  has  sustained  its  well  merited  reputation 
to  such  an  extent  that  we  need  merely  point  to  what  we  have  said  about  sev- 
eral of  the  former  volumes  ;  the  arrangement  remains  the  same  as  heretofore^ 
and  the  extracts  of  the  numerous  papers  published  during  1871  have  been  made 
with  the  usual  care  and  completeness. 
Handbook  of  Compound  Medicines,  or  the  Prescribed s  and  Dispenser's  Vade- 
Mecum.  By  Arnold  J.  Cooley.  Philadelphia  :  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.  187.3. 
12mo.    pp.  219. 
This  little  work  is  divided  into  two  parts,  parti  containing  formulas  for  pills, 
boluses,  globules,  grains  and  granules,  and  part  II  such  for  mixtures,  each  part 
being  introduced  with  the  same  preface,  dated,  respectively,  London,  October 
1st,  1866,  and  May  1st,  1867.    It  is  evident  from  this  that  the  scope  of  the 
