236 
Reviews. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1899. 
order  of  things,  we  must  recall  that  there  has  been  a  gradual  evolution  since 
ancient  times,  and,  step  by  step,  a  clearer  insight  into  the  workings  of  nature 
has  been  gained.  There  is  so  much  that  is  new  and  so  much  plausibility  in 
everything  that  is  new,  that  we  wonder  sometimes,  if  the  present  rate  of  pro- 
gress keeps  up,  what  a  task  it  will  be  for  the  student  of  100  years  hence  sim- 
ply to  know  what  is  known  of  a  very  fragmentary  part  of  the  whole.  And 
further,  how  difficult  it  will  be  to  put  the  whole  together  to  get  any  adequate 
conception  of  how  intricate  and  wonderful  the  universe  is  in  its  make-up.  It  may 
not  be  amiss  to  recall  a  few  words  of  Balfour  Stewart,  who  wrote  at  a  time 
when  his  mind  was  not  befogged  by  the  results  of  numerous  observers  since 
his  time. 
"  The  ancients  possessed  great  genius  and  intellectual  power,  but  they  were 
deficient  in  physical  conceptions,  and  in  consequence  their  ideas  were  not 
prolific.  It  cannot  be  said  that  we,  of  the  present  day,  are  deficient  in  such 
conceptions;  nevertheless  it  maybe  questioned  whether  there  is  not  a  tendency 
to  rush  into  the  opposite  extreme  and  to  work  physical  conceptions  to  an 
excess.  Let  us  be  cautious  that  in[avoiding  Scylla  we  do  not  rush  into  Chary bdis. 
For  the  universe  has  more  than  one  point  of  view,  and  there  are  possibly  regions 
which  will  not  yield  their  treasures  to  the  most  determined  physicists,  armed 
only  with  kilogrammes  and  metres  and  standard  clocks." 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Chemistry  :  General,  Medical  and  Pharmaceutical  including  the  Chemistry 
of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia.  By  John  Attfield,  F.R.S.  New  (sixteenth)  edi- 
tion. In  one  royal  i2mo.  volume  of  784  pages  with  eighty-eight  illustrations. 
Cloth,  $2.50,  net.    Lea  Brothers  &  Co.,  Philadelphia  and  New  York. 
The  present  eoition  corresponds  to  the  concurrently  produced  seventeenth 
British  edition.  It  is  a  revision  of  the  fourteenth  American  edition,  which 
appeared  toward  the  close  of  1894.  In  revising  several  changes  have  been 
made  in  the  chemical  names  ;  much  of  the  text  has  been  rewritten  ;  a  few  sec- 
tions have  been  rearranged  to  make  the  order  of  treatment  more  logical ;  and 
some  new  topics  have  been  introduced.  By  eliminating  some  of  the  less  im- 
portant matter,  the  author  has  been  able  to  keep  the  work  within  the  size  of  its 
predecessors.  The  book  is  intended  as  a  learner's  manual,  and,  in  this  capacity, 
the  present  edition  will  maintain  the  long-established  and  well-deserved  repu- 
tation which  the  work  enjoys.  Josiah  C.  Peacock. 
Annual  and  Analytical  Cyclopaedia  oe  Practical  Medicine.  By 
Charles  E.  de  M.  Sajous,  M.D.,  and  one  hundred  associate  editors  assisted  by 
corresponding  editors,  collaborators  and  correspondents.  Illustrated  with 
chromo-lithographs,  engravings  and  maps,  Volume  II,  Philadelphia,  New  York 
and  Chicago.    The  F.  A.  Davis  Company,  Publishers,  1899. 
In  the  first  volume  the  majority  of  sections  were  prepared  under  the  imme- 
diate supervision  of  the  editor.  In  the  second  volume,  at  hand,  all  of  the  arti- 
cles have  been  prepared  by  their  respective  editors.  The  aim  of  the  editor  is 
not  only  to  facilitate  the  labor  of  the  practicing  physician  and  to  assist  investi- 
gators and  authors  in  their  researches,  but  he  also  seeks  to  elucidate,  through 
