I 
Reviews.  .  401 
thoroughly  a  student  is  educated  scientifically  and  professionally,  he  may  fail 
to  realize  the  value  of  such  education  if  he  remains  ignorant  of  proper  busi- 
ness methods."  The  subjects  to  be  treated  of  are  enumerated,  and  then  fol- 
lows the  statement  that  "no  effort  will  be  spared  to  cover  every  commercial 
point  of  the  education  of  the  pharmacist  that  will  make  him  not  only  a  valua- 
ble assistant,  but  fit  him  as  far  as  possible  for  the  responsible  duties  of  a  pro- 
prietor.^' Surely  this  is  an  education  that,  in  connection  with  the  other 
courses  offered,  may  be  considered  broad  enough — broad  enough  to  qualify 
the  graduates  to  become  valuable  assistants  and  responsible  proprietors. 
It  may  seem  sometimes  to  the  practical  pharmacist,  who  is  perplexed  with 
the  multitudinous  things  he  has  to  do,  that  there  must  be  a  better  way  for  him 
and  for  his  clerks  to  travel.  It  may  seem  sometimes  that  pharmacy  is  an  unfor- 
tunate calling,  with  many  trials  and  perplexities,  and  few  pleasures  and  re- 
wards. But  look  around  and  see  the  bright  and  dark  sides  to  every  vocation. 
We  remind  those  who  would  change  existing  things  that  things  are  changing, 
and  that  desirable  things  are  being  done.  A  great  many  minds  to  whom  are  en- 
trusted the  responsibilities  of  pharmaceutical  education  are  quietly  considering 
the  problems  of  pharmaceutical  education  in  all  its  phases.  The  light  in  the 
sky  is  already  appearing,  the  clouds  are  rising  higher  and  higher  on  the  moun- 
tain side,  and  the  students  of  pharmacy  are  ascending  year  by  year  to  higher 
flights  than  those  who  preceded  them  yesterday,  and  they  follow  their  teachers 
(and  the  schools)  who  it  sometimes  may  seem  are  working  in  the  clouds  of  im- 
penetrable impracticability,  yet  who,  nevertheless,  when  the  light  shines,  are 
seen  to  be  laboring  for  the  real  benefit  and  the  lasting  future  of  pharmacy. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Binfuhrung  in  die  praktische  Nahrungsmitte^chemie,  bearbeitet 
von  Dr.  H.  Thorns,  Prof,  in  Berlin  ;  mit  einem  Anhange  :  Botanisch-mikros- 
kopischer  Theil,  bearbeitet  von  Dr.  B.  Gilg,  Privatdozent  d.  Botanik  in  Ber- 
lin.   Mit  115  Abbildungen.    Leipzig:  S.  Hirzel.    Gr.  8vo,  415  p. 
There  can  scarcely  be  any  doubt  on  the  point  that,  in  the  majority  of 
civilized  States,  serious  studies  and  rational  laws  for  promoting  general  sani- 
tary welfare  are  just  now  in  the  first  rank  of  public  interest.  And,  to  do  jus- 
tice to  this  well-founded  desideratum  of  modern  times,  systematic  chemical 
examination  of  food-materials  belongs  to  the  most  active  and  hopeful  means. 
In  consequence,  this  branch  of  applied  chemistry,  in  these  last  ten  3^ears  and 
present  days,  is  going  on  to  be  more  thoroughly  cultivated  in  the  laboratories 
of  universities  and  higher  technical  schools,  especially  in  connection  with 
pharmaceutical  and  medical  university  training.  In  fact,  among  men  devoted 
to  the  so-called  liberal  or  scientific  professions  there  is,  as  we  may  fairly 
assert,  no  class  more  and  better  adapted  to  the  pursuing  of  this  kind  of  chemi- 
cal and  hygienical  work  than  that  of  pharmaceutical  chemists,  who,  by  their 
early  practical  contact  with  different  parts  of  natural  history  and  exact  natural 
sciences,  and  by  the  later  academical  studies  and  simultaneous  training  in 
chemistry,  physics,  botany,  mineralogy  and  materia  medica  or  pharmacology, 
ought  to  be  admirably  prepared  and  in  the  most  favorable  condition  for  the 
chemical  study  and  detection  of  food  adulteration.    It  is  well  known,  at  least 
A  n.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
August,  18!  9.  J 
