EDITORIAL. 
91 
tioners,  chemists  and  druggists,  medical  and  pharmaceutical  students,  &c. 
By  Frederick  John  Farre,  M.D.,  Cantab.,  F.L.S.,  &c,  &c,  &c,  assisted 
by  Robert  Bentley,  Professor  of  Materia  Medica  to  the  Pharmaceutical 
Society,  &c,  and  by  Robert  Warrington,  F.R.S.,  of  Apothecaries'  Hall, 
&c.  Edited,  with  numerous  references  to  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia,  and 
many  other  additions,  by  Horatio  C.  Wood,  Jr.,  M.D.,  Pro  essor  of 
Botany  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  &c.  With  236  wood  engra- 
vings.   Philada.,  Henry  C.  Lea,  1866 :  pp.  1030. 
If  it  was  necessary  to  have  another  work  on  materia  medica  in  England, 
it  would  have  been  well  for  Dr.  Farre  and  his  co-laborers  to  have  built 
one  up  from  the  foundation,  as  they  are  abundantly  able  to  do,  and  let  the 
great  work  of  Pereira  remain  unabridged,  retaining  undimmed,  amid  all 
future  revisions,  the  impress  of  his  genius  and  research. 
The  author  of  the  abridgement,  Dr.  Farre,  has  reduced  the  work  to  about 
one-third  its  size,  not  only  by  condensing  the  leading  articles,  but  by  ex- 
tensive omissions  from  the  first  volume  of  the  original,  and  by  omitting  all 
pharmacological  remedies  not  contained  in  the  officinal  list  of  the  Bri:ish 
Pharmacopoeia.  Now  it  is  well  known  that  the  list  of  the  British  Phar- 
macopoeia was  very  much  reduced  in  the  late  revision,  thus  affording  to 
Dr.  Farre,  so  far  as  his  British  readers  were  concerned,  a  legitimate  ground 
for  extensive  curtailment.  But  however  this  may  suit  the  medical 
practitioners  of  England,  we  very  much  doubt  the  wisdom  of  excluding  so 
many  articles  that  were  more  or  less  used  or  referred  to  in  some  portions 
of  that  kingdom,  and  especially  by  druggists  and  pharmaceutists  who  have 
to  cater  for  medical  men  of  all  grades  of  opinion  in  materia  medica.  It 
is  better  to  have  the  mere  name  of  an  article,  with  reference  to  where  ti 
may  be  found  noticed,  than  to  pass  it  by  untouched. 
The  American  publishers  having  determined  to  reprint  the  book,  and 
seeing  these  deficiencies,  very  wisely  placed  the  work  in  the  hands  of  an 
editor, — Dr.  Horatio  C.  Wood,  Jr., — to  restore  these  omissions,  and,  by  the 
introduction  of  the  processes  of  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia,  to  adapt 
it,  as  far  as  possible,  to  the  wants  of  physicians  and  pharmaceutists  here. 
How  well  this  onerous  task  has  been  performed,  and  how  much  the  book 
has  been  increased  in  value  to  American  readers  by  Dr.  Wood's  labors, 
let  us  examine.  Besides  the  numerous  interpolations  of  formula  from  the 
U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia,  "  over  one  hundred  articles  on  substances  in  the 
U.  S.  Ph.  have  been  introduced,"  many  of  which  are  of  prime  importance. 
In  hastily  glancing  over  the  volume  we  have  noticed  among  these,  glacial 
phosphoric  acid,  iodide  of  sulphur,  ammoniac  valerianas,  potassii  cyanidum, 
sulphite  of  soda,  liquor  magnesige  citratis,  aluminse  sulphas,  acid,  chromic, 
kermes  mineral,  cadmii  sulphas,  plumbi  iodidum,  ferri  subcarbonas,  pil. 
ferri  carbonatis,  liq.  ferri  subsulphatis,  liq.  ferri  tersulphatis,  ferri  lactas, 
ferri  ferrocyanidum,  etc.,  among  mineral  substances;  and  oatmeal,  sago 
eabadilla,  veratrum  viride,  aloe  capensis,  allium,  vanilla,  cypripedium, 
arum,  symplocarpus,  maranta,  tapioca,  stillingia,  American  ipecac,  asarum 
