AFebruMvTwoT*}    Reviews  and  Bibliographical  Notices.  97 
Maisch,  and  contains  380  pages  of  text.  The  subject-matter  is 
divided  into  four  parts,  as  follows :  Part  I,  98  pages,  Plant  Mor- 
phology; Part  II,  214  pages,  Pharmacognosy;  Part  III,  Reagents; 
Part  IV,  Illustrations  and  Index. 
As  stated  in  the  preface,  the  subject  of  morphology,  both  outer 
and  inner,  is  more  or  less  extensively  treated,  because  this  knowl- 
edge is  of  fundamental  importance  in  the  study  of  vegetable  drugs, 
crude  and  powdered.  There  are  many  treatises  upon  this  subject, 
but  the  great  difficulty  is  that  they  have  not  been  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  the  pharmacy  student.  Either  they  are  burdened  with 
multitudinous  technical  details  unimportant  from  his  point  of  view, 
or  they  are  wofully  superficial.  A  happy  medium  has  been  struck 
in  this  text,  especially  when  we  consider  that  the  author  elucidates 
the  subject  by  illustrated  lectures.  To  some,  the  absence  of 
illustrative  cuts  along  with  definitions  will  be  considered  an  objec- 
tion as  a  book  for  general  use.  A  very  serviceable  feature  is  the 
plan  of  emphasizing  special  or  subtopics  by  means  of  conspicuous 
heavy-faced  type. 
The  introduction  to  Part  II  defines  pharmacognosy,  and  very  con- 
cisely and  clearly  explains  the  meaning  of  the  terms — natural  origin, 
botanical  origin  and  habitat  of  plants ;  official  title,  pharmacopceial 
definition  and  commercial  origin  of  vegetable  drugs,  and  generalizes 
upon  the  collection,  drying,  preservation,  garbling  and  valuation  of 
drugs. 
The  classification  adopted  by  the  author  is  the  morphological, 
viz.:  seeds  are  considered  together,  then  the  roots  and  rhizomes,  and 
so  on  with  the  rest  of  the  plant  organs  in  a  natural  sequence.  A 
very  concise  key  or  classification  precedes  the  actual  discussion  of 
each  group  of  plant  organs;  in  fact,  this  part  is  very  similar  to  the 
plan  of  Maisch.  There  are,  however,  no  illustrations  in  the  text, 
the  constituents  are  not  so  fully  treated,  and  the  properties  of  the 
drugs  are  omitted  entirely.  With  reference  to  chemical  constitu- 
ents given  with  each  drug,  the  disproved  statements  have  been 
eliminated  and  the  results  of  latest  research  incorporated.  In  a  very 
few  instances,  however,  it  is  noticed  that  the  most  important  con- 
stituents are  omitted,  as,  for  example,  in  oil  of  fennel,  oil  of  caraway 
and  oil  of  coriander,  while  in  some  relatively  unimportant  drugs,  as 
staphisagria,  the  constituents  are  given  in  considerable  detail.  It  is 
not  surprising  that  the  constituents  of  sanguinaria  are  not  correctly 
