634 
Reviews. 
f Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(.        Dec,  1890. 
Dr.  Alfred  Schneider,  Korps-Stabsapotheker  in  Dresden.  Gottingen  :  Vanden- 
hoeck  &  Ruprecht.  1890. 
Commentary  to  the  German  Pharmacopoeia  with  references  to,  and  com- 
parison with,  the  former  German  and  other  Pharmacopoeias. 
This  promises  to  become  a  very  useful  and  practical  as  well  as  thoroughly 
reliable  work.  It  is  issued  in  parts  of  64  pages  each,  of  which  two  are  now 
before  us  ;  they  indicate  all  the  good  qualities  which,  on  former  occasions,  we 
had  the  opportunity  of  commending  in  connection  with  several  pharmaceutical 
works  of  one  of  the  present  authors.  The  work  now  under  consideration 
opens  with  an  introductory  chapter  giving  a  brief  account  of  the  new  pharma- 
copoeia recently  published,  and  of  its  general  features.  Next  follows  a  survey 
of  the  changes  that  have  been  introduced  by  the  new  pharmacopoeia,  tables 
being  given  showing  the  remedies  newly  admitted  or  dismissed ;  a  long  list 
recording  the  changes,  verbal  and  others,  which  have  been  made  in  the  text  J 
and  similar  lists  showing  the  changes  in  the  official  reagents,  the  recognized 
maximal  doses,  the  specific  gravities,  and  in  the  poisons  and  powerful  medicines 
which  have  to  be  kept  with  special  precautions.  The  following  chapter 
describes  in  a  succinct  manner  the  most  important  operations  required  for  the 
recognition  and  examination  of  the  different  articles,  beginning  with  specific 
gravity  and  the  manner  of  reducing  heavy  liquids  to  their  proper  densities  ; 
the  determination  of  the  melting  and  boiling  points,  and  a  brief  account  of  the 
strength  and  uses  of  the  volumetric  solutions  and  of  the  limits  of  certain 
important  reactions.  The  commentary  proper  enumerates  the  pharmacopceial 
articles  in  alphabetical  order,  as  the}-  are  contained  in  the  Pharmacopoeia,  and 
after  giving  the  complete  pharmacopceial  text,  proceeds  with  the  comments, 
first  giving  the  chemical  formula  and  combining  weight,  after  which  the  pro- 
cess of  preparation  is  described,  the  nomenclature  is  explained  if  necessary, 
and  the  pharmacopceial  requirements  for  determining  the  identity  and  purity 
of  the  remedy  are  discussed,  followed  by  other  reactions  if  deemed  advisable 
or  necessary,  and  by  remarks  on  pharmaceutical  uses,  precautions  for  preserv- 
ing the  remedy,  and  similar  practical  points.  Vegetable  drugs  receive  a  similar 
treatment ;  following  the  text  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  we  find  brief  accounts  of 
the  parent  plants,  of  the  preparation  of  the  drug  for  the  market,  of  the 
constituents,  reactions,  impurities,  substitutions,  etc. 
The  work  will,  without  doubt,  be  carried  to  completion  in  the  same  excellent 
manner  in  which  it  has  thus  far  been  rendered  ;  and  it  should  be  mentioned  yet 
that  paper  and  typography  are  in  keeping  with  the  contents. 
A  Text-Book  of  Practical  Therapeutics,  with  especial  reference  to  the  appli- 
cation of  remedial  measures  to  disease  and  their  employment  upon  a  rational 
basis.  By  Hobart  Amory  Hare,  M.D.  (Univ.  of  Pa.),  B.  Sc.,  Clinical  Professor 
of  the  Diseases  of  Children  and  Demonstrator  of  Therapeutics  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania,  etc.,  Philadelphia  :  Lea  Brothers  &  Co.  1890.  8vo.  pp. 
632.    Price,  cloth,  $3-75  i  leather,  $4.75. 
The  author  states  that  the  object  of  the  book  is  to  provide  the  physician  or 
undergraduate  student  of  medicine  with  a  reliable  guide  in  the  stud}-  of  thera- 
peutics, or  the  application  of  remedial  measures  for  the  cure  of  disease  ;  and 
that  it  has  been  written  because  most  of  the  text-books  on  this  subject  treat  of 
it  as  if  the  student  was  already  a  skilled  physician  or  experimental  pharmacol- 
