EDITORIAL. 
287 
College,  on  behalf  of  his  association,  a  portrait  of  Prof.  Bridges,  for  the 
College  Museum  Hall.  Prof.  Edward  Parrish,  on  behalf  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  in  a  few  feelingly  apposite  remarks,  acknowledged  the  gift,  and 
commented  on  the  well-deserved  honor  which  it  reflected  on  the  veteran 
professor  of  chemistry. 
The  last  feature  of  the  ceremony — one  which  has  grown  up  of  latter 
years  until  it  is  time  to  curtail  its  proportions — was  the  presentation  of 
boquets  of  flowers  to  the  graduates.  On  two  side-tables,  during  the 
gathering  of  the  audience,  the  friends  .of  the  graduates  had  piled  up  their 
floral  contributions  until  two  pyramids  of  beauty  were  formed.  When 
the  time  arrived  these  were  wheeled  into  the  centre  of  the  platform,  and 
Profs.  Maisch  and  Parrish,  calling  out  the  names  appended  to  each,  dis- 
tributed them  to  the  lucky  recipients.  Fortune,  as  usual,  was  wayward 
in  her  gifts,  for  while  one  gentleman  was  favored  with  eight  boquets, 
many  received  but  one  and  a  few  were  wholly  forgotten.  All  went  off 
favorably  and  happily,  and  the  occasion  will  be  long  remembered. 
On  the  action  of  Medicines  in  the  System. — Br  Frederick  William  Head- 
land, M.  D.,  Fellow  Royal  Coll.  Phys.,  etc.  Fifth  American,  from 
the  Fourth  London  Edition.  Philada.:  Lindsay  &  Blackiston,  1867. 
pp.  431.  octavo. 
The  last  American  edition  of  Headland  was  in  1863,  from  the  third 
English  edition  of  1859.  The  present  volume  is  the  fifth  American  from 
the  fourth  English  edition,  the  author's  preface  of  which  is  dated  Novem- 
ber, 1866.  The  author  has  aimed  to  improve  without  enlarging  it,  and 
in  fact,  notwithstanding  "a  considerable  number  of  fresh  observations  and 
discoveries,  some  of  them  of  considerable  importance,  and  representing  the 
labors  of  therapeutists  of  all  nations  during  the  last  seven  years,  have  been 
noticed  in  their  proper  places  in  the  present  volume,"  yet  the  actual  number 
of  pages  is  less  than  in  the  fourth  edition,  a  fact  due  to  the  use  of  smaller  and 
more  compact  type.  The  paper  is  excellent,  the  binding  good,  and  the 
typography  unexceptionable.  So  much  for  this  part  of  the  subject.  The 
general  character  of  the  work  for  accuracy,  its  high  ^standing  among 
treatises  of  its  kind,  and  the  elegant  diction  of  its  accomplished  author 
need  no  comment;  they  are  well  known  to  our  medical  readers;  but  it 
may  be  asked  of  what  use  is  the  book  to  the  pharmaceutist?  What  does  he 
need  that  its  pages  embrace  ?  Why  should  the  book  be  noticed  at  all  in 
a  pharmaceutical  journal  ?  We  reply  that  it  is  not  addressed  to  the  phar- 
maceutist, nor  is  it  a  necessary  volume  for  his  shelves  ;  yet  the  whole  sub- 
ject of  Therapeutics,  of  which  this  work  forms  an  important  part,  should 
certainly  interest  a  class  of  individuals  whose  daily  engagements  as  dis- 
pensers are  actively  connected  with  the  agents  producing  the  phenomena 
of  which  this  volume  treats.  It  is  true  that  very  much  mystery  yet  in- 
volves "  the  action  of  medicines  in  the  system/'  and  much  of  what  our 
author  has  to  treat  is  hypothetical,  at  least  not  proven  ;  nevertheless,  the 
