Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
Nov.,  1884.  J 
Reviews,  etc. 
603 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
The  National  Dispensatory  Containing  the  Natural  History,  Chemistry, 
Pharmacy,  Action  and  Uses  of  Medicines,  etc.  By  Alfred  Stille,  M.D., 
LL.  D.,  and  John  M.  Maisch,  Phar.D.  Third  edition ,  thoroughly  revised, 
with  numerous  additions.  With  311  illustrations.  Philadelphia:  Henry 
Q.  Lea's  Son  &  Co.,  1884.  Large  8vo,  pp.  1755.  Price  in  cloth,  $7.25;  in 
leather,  $8.00. 
The  authors  have  endeavored  to  make  this  third  edition  of  the  National 
Dispensatory  complete,  interesting  and  instructive;  the  book  is  the  very 
Encyclopaedia  of  Pharmacy  and  nothing  has  been  left  undone  to  reach  this 
end.  The  origin  of  drugs,  their  nature,  properties,  constituents  and  com- 
position are  fully  described,  their  adulterations  and  impurities  are  men- 
tioned, and  their  physiological  effect  based  on  experiments  with  animals, 
and  therapeutical  effect  as  elicited  by  clinical  experience  are  explained. 
Their  administration  in  Pharmacy  and  Medicine,  with  the  doses,  are 
minutely  given. 
Besides  the  new  drugs  and  new  officinal  preparations  of  the  Pharmacopoeia 
of  1880,  a  great  many,  as  yet  unofflcinal,  have  been  added.  While  in  the 
former  editions,  besides  the  U.  S.  preparations,  mainly  those  of  the  Brit- 
ish Pharmacopoeia  were  mentioned,  this  edition  contains  also  the  com- 
pounds and  preparations  of  the  latest  German  Pharmacopoeia  and  a  great 
many  of  the  French  Codex,  thus  giving  the  book  the  character  of  a  phar- 
naceutical  Dictionary. 
The  arrangement  is  in  the  main  part  the  same  as  in  the  former  editions. 
All  the  new  drugs  and  preparations  taken  up  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  1880 
are  conspicuously  inserted,  carefully  described  and  commented.  To  con- 
form with  the  requirements  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  several  changes  had  to 
be  made,  particularly  in  the  nomenclature  and  in  the  headings  of  different 
articles.  So  we  find  Filix  mas  under  Aspidium,  Gamboge  under  Cambogia ; 
Spir.  Lavandulae  comp.  is  called  Tinct.  Lav.  comp,  and  Pilulae  ferri  car- 
bonatis  and  Pil.  Hydrargyri  are  mentioned  under  Massa  ferri  carb.  and 
Massa  hydrargyri.  Some  of  the  headings  of  drugs  are  more  condensed  : 
Chrysophanic  acid  and  Araroba  are  to  be  found  under  Chrysarobin,  the 
former  also  under  Rheum  ;  older  inmates  of  Materia  Medica  from  the  mineral 
and  animal  kingdom,  whose  chief  constituent  is  Carbonate  of  Calcium,  as 
Corallia,  Testae  ovorum  and  Conchaepraeparatae  are  enumerated  under  Creta 
praeparata,  and  the  different  Starches  and  Arrowroots  are  all  found  under 
the  heading  of  Amylum,  where  the  granules  of  each  kind  are  illustrated. 
Many  more  of  such  instances  could  be  mentioned,  but  suffice  it  to  say 
that  we  consider  these  condensations  as  very  instructive  and  beneficial  to 
the  student  of  Pharmacy,  inasmuch  as  he  becomes  better  impressed  with  the 
relation  of  the  different  substances.  The  General  Index  is  so  complete  that 
everything  is  easily  found  in  the  book. 
Some  of  the  preparations  and  salts  which  have  in  later  years  become  of 
more  importance  in  Medicine  are  made  more  conspicuous  under  separate 
headings,  while  others,  and  also  numerous  raw  drugs,  are  enumerated  under 
"Allied  Drugs  and  Preparations,"  which  are  made  conspicuous  by  smaller 
type  and  closer  printing. 
Illustrations  are  given  of  the  forms  of  crystals  of  the  more  important 
