204 
Reviews, 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I      April,  1890. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
The  .National  Medical  Dictionary,  including  Euglish,  French,  German, 
Italian  and  Latin  technical  terms  used  in  medicine  and  the  collateral  sciences, 
and  a'series  of  tables  of  useful  data.  By  John  S.  Billings,  A.M.,  M.D.,  etc.  ; 
with  the  collaboration  of  W.  O.  Atwater,  M.D.,  Frank  Baker,  M.D.,  S.  M. 
Burnett,  M.D.,  W.  T.  Councilman,  M.D.,  Jas.  M.  Flint,  M.D.,  J.  A.  Kidder, 
M.D.,  Wm.  Lee,  M.D.,  R.  Lorini,  M.D.,  Washington  Matthews,  M.D.,  H.  C. 
Yarrow,  M.D.  Philadelphia  :  Lea  Brothers  &  Co.  1890.  2  volumes,  large  8vo, 
pp.  xlvi,  731  and  799. 
With  the  continually  increasing  interchange  of  the  scientific  literature  of  all 
nations,  it  becomes  of  the  utmost  importance  to  clearly  comprehend  the 
technical  terms  which  are  employed  in  the  different  languages.  Those  who 
read  essays  or  larger  works  published  in  a  foreign  tongue  often  feel  the  need 
of  a  technological  dictionary  giving  correct  explanations  of  terms  peculiar  to 
that  language.  Such  is  the  aim,  applied  to  medicine  and  pharmacy,  of  the 
elaborate  work  now  before  us,  which  is  intended  to  furnish  to  students  and 
practitioners  of  medicine  a  clear  and  concise  definition  of  ever}'  medical  term 
in  current  use  in  English,  French,  German  and  Italian  medical  literature, 
including  the  Latin  medical  terminology  of  these  languages.  It  will  be  observed 
that  the  work  does  not  profess  to  include  all  the  words  that  have  been 
employed  in  medicine,  but  only  such  which  are  used  at  the  present  time. 
Obviously,  there  must  be  some  difficulty  to  draw  a  line  for  the  exclusion  of 
words  which  are,  at  the  present  time,  rarely  used  by  medical  writers.  A  number 
of  such  words,  which,  though  considered  obsolete,  are  liable  to  be  occasionally 
met  with  in  print,  have  been  properly  admitted  ;  and  in  addition  to  these  a  few 
have  also  been  taken  to  show  what  attempts  at  useless  word-building  may  lead 
to.  As  a  matter  of  course,  the  arrangement  of  the  words  is  strictly  alpha- 
betical, without  regard  to  the  language  to  which  they  may  belong.  The  French, 
German  and  Italian  terms  are  defined  by  simply  giving  their  English  equiva- 
lents. Full  explanations  are  given  in  connection  with  the  Latin  and  English 
words,  either  one  or  both,  and  in  this  connection  are  also  found  the  French, 
German  and  Italian  synonyms,  when  these  differ  from  the  prime  word.  The 
pronunciation  of  the  English  and  Latin  terms  is  indicated  by  an  accented  syl- 
lable, and  in  addition  to  this  a  simple  system  of  phonetic  spelling  has  been 
adopted  for  those  English  words  for  whose  proper  pronunciation  it  was  deemed 
useful.  For  most  of  the  English  and  Anglicized  Latin  words,  the  derivation  is 
given,  with  the  exception  of  the  names  of  drugs  and  plants.  The  total  num- 
ber of  words  and  phrases  defined  is  84,844,  of  which  25,496  are  Latin,  9,158 
French,  16.708  German,  and  6,514  Italian  ;  but  these  figures  do  not  include  the 
foreign  synonyms  given  only  in  connection  with  English  or  Latin  primes. 
They  indicate,  however  in  a  measure,  the  completeness  of  the  work.  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  refer  to  the  correctness  of  the  derivations  and  definitions 
given.  The  name  of  the  learned  author  is  sufficient  guarantee  for  accuracy 
and  reliability.  Among  the  large  number  of  terms  which  we  have  critically 
examined,  we  have  observed  one  only  which  lacks  somewhat— not  in  accuracy 
— but  in  that  completeness  which  is  characteristic  of  all  the  rest  examined  by 
us.  Under  Pennyro}'al,  the  reference  is,  "see  Hedeoma."  To  make  it  com- 
plete, the  words  "  and  Pulegium"  or  "and  Mentha  Pulegium"  should  be 
