Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1899. 
Reviews. 
193 
about  5  per  cent,  was  refuse.  Though  forty  different  products  are  made  by 
the  company,  still  5  per  cent,  was  practically  waste.  By  utilizing  this  waste 
material  in  making  the  new  product  it  is  calculated  that  corn  rubber  can  be 
sold  at  6  cents  a  pound,  2  cents  of  which  will  be  clear  profit.  The  corn  rub- 
ber, it  is  said,  will  be  adapted  to  nearly  all  the  uses  that  ordinary  rubber  is 
capable  of — from  bicycle  tires  to  linoleum.  The  more  refined  uses  to  which 
the  rubber  is  put,  however,  will  still  be  a  closed  field,  for  the  composition  of 
corn  rubber  will  prevent  its  substitution  for  india-rubber  for  scientific  uses." 
It  is  farther  stated  that  the  new  product  may  be  advantageously  mixed 
with  Para  rubber,  producing  a  cheaper  article  of  substantially  the  same 
quality  for  ordinary  service,  as  the  genuine  rubber. 
The  manifold  uses  to  which  rubber  may  be  applied  lead  us  to  believe  that  we 
are  likely  to  hear  of  the  discovery  of  new  plants  yielding  this  product,  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  most  important  species  and  many  attempts  in  the  manufacture 
of  an  artificial  product. 
REVIEWvS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Hand-Book  of  Practical  Assaying  of  Drugs  and  Gai^nicals.  A 
Manual  for  the  Pharmaceutical  Student  and  a  Guide  to  the  Practical  Pharma- 
cist who  has  Occasion  either  to  Standardize  his  own  Preparations  or  to  Test  the 
Drugs  and  Galenicals  he  Dispenses.  By  A.  B.  Lyons.,  F.C.S.  Detroit :  Nelson, 
Baker  &  Co.,  Publishers.  1899. 
This  volume,  of  almost  250  pages  represents  all  of  the  progress  made  in  pharma- 
ceutical assaying,  since  the  publication  of  Lyon's  Manual  of  Assaying,  in  1886, 
and  will  be  found  a  valuable  addition  to  all  pharmaceutical  libraries  since  the 
original  publications  of  assay  processes  are  widely  scattered  in  home  and 
foreign  periodicals. 
Some  eighty  pages  are  devoted  to  descriptions  of  apparatus,  reagents,  selec- 
tion and  preparation  of  samples,  methods  of  extracting  the  drug,  methods  of 
assay  for  drugs  by  various  gravimetric  and  volumetric  processes,  and  methods 
for  assaying  galenicals  as  extracts,  fluid  extracts,  tinctures,  wines  and  syrups. 
The  greater  portion  of  the  book  then  takes  up  forty  drugs  in  detail,  for 
which  assay  processes  have  been  devised  by  the  author  and  others ;  these 
drugs  are  generally  treated  according  to  the  following  system  :  Active  constitu- 
ents, methods  of  assay  (gravimetric  and  volumetric— and  in  some  cases  also 
physiological ;  in  case  of  the  strychnos,  opium  and  cinchona  alkaloids  methods 
for  separating  the  alkaloids  are  also  given),  the  assay  of  galenical  preparations, 
and  lastly,  a  statement  as  to  the  quantity  of  the  active  constituents  found  by 
assay. 
The  following  criticisms  are  made  to  increase  the  value  of  this  volume : 
In  the  preparation  of  reagents  it  would  be  far  preferable  to  indicate  per- 
centage strength  in  place  of  some  of  the  terms  used — as  hydrochloric  acid 
(B.  P.),  concentrated  ether,  etc.;  such  statements  would  be  valuable  for  all 
time,  whereas  pharmacopceial  strength  and  commercial  names  are  liable  to 
change. 
On  page  41  the  statement  is  made  "that  the  methods  of  Schwickeratb, 
Keller  and  Kebler  are  modifications  of,  and  in  some  respects  improvements 
upon,  those  originally  worked  out  by  the  author,  following  the  general  plan  of 
