EDITORIAL. 
381 
made  recently  in  the  study  of  animal  physiology  to  be  chiefly  due  to  the 
initiative  researches  and  discoveries  in  the  functions  of  vegetable  life  by 
Mirbel,  Mohl,  Schleiden,  and  others,  by  which  the  cell  origin  of  animal 
structure  has  been  demonstrated.  We  agree  entirely  with  the  author  in 
regard  to  the  unmerited  neglect  of  botanical  studies  by  medical,  as  well 
as  pharmaceutical  students,  to  whom  it  is  more  necessary  than  to  any  other 
classes  of  community.  It  is,  perhaps,  not  easy  to  give  the  true  causes  for 
this  neglect ;  yet  among  them  is  the  prevailing  disposition  in  our  schools 
to  facilitate  the  process  of  obtaining  diplomas  by  simplifying  the  curri- 
culum to  meet  the  convenience  of  imperfect  scholarship.  So  palpable  is  the 
neglect  of  even  structural  botany  among  medical  students,  that  a  professor 
of  materia  medica  who  enters  with  any  minuteness  into  the  description  of 
medical  plants,  is  too  frequently  voted  a  bore,  and  his  lessons  thrown  away. 
Another  cause,  perhaps,  is  the  lack  of  able  teachers  to  win  the  student  in 
spite  of  his  disinclination  for  the  science.  Let  our  institutions  place  botany 
beside  chemistry  as  a  collateral  branch  of  medical  instruction,  and  we  have 
the  remedy. 
Investigations,  Chemical  and  Physiological,  relative  to  certain  American  Ver~ 
tebrata.  By  Joseph  Jones,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  Savan- 
nah Medical  College.  Washington  City.  Published  by  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  July,  1856.  New  York ;  G.  P.  Putnam  &  Co.  Pp.  137, 
quarto.    From  the  Author. 
This  work  has  evidently  involved  a  large  amount  of  labor  and  research 
which  nothing  but  true  love  of  science  could  have  stimulated  and  sustained. 
In  the  several  chapters  the  author  has  studied,  1st,  method  of  analyzing 
the  blood.  2d,  the  blood  of  vertebrate  animals  in  its  normal  condition.  3d, 
physical  and  chemical  changes  of  the  solids  and  fluids  of  animals  when 
deprived  of  food  and  drinks.  4th,  effects  of  starvation  and  thirst,  combined 
with  a  change  of  diet  upon  the  fluids  and  solids  of  carnivorous  chelonians. 
5th,  observations  upon  the  alimentary  canal,  and  digestion  of  albumen  and 
flesh.  The  remaining  five  chapters  are  severally  on  the  pancreas,  liver, 
spleen,  kidney  and  urine  of  cold-blooded  animals. 
Drs.  Samuel  Jackson,  Joseph  Leidy  and  Jeffries  Wyman  constitute  the 
the  Commission  to  whom  the  work  was  referred  for  examination  by  the 
Smithsonian  Institution. 
Valedictory  Address  to  the  Graduates  of  the  Maryland  College  of  Pharmacy, 
delivered  March  6th,  1857.  By  Charles  Frick,  M.  D.  With  a  list  of  the 
Graduates.  Published  by  the  Trustees  of  the  College.  Baltimore,  1857; 
pp.  25,  octavo. 
The  tone  of  Dr.  Frick's  address  is  excellent,  and  its  style  unexceptiona- 
ble. We  congratulate  our  Baltimore  brethren  on  their  possession  of  so 
able  and  accomplished  a  teacher. 
