292  Reviews  and  Bibliographical  Notices.    {  ^m  ju°nue?iF(Sarm' 
most  highly  appreciated  and  most  valuable  features  of  the  annual 
volumes  of  the  proceedings. 
The  remaining  portion  of  the  book  is  made  up,  as  on  former 
occasions,  of  the  constitution,  by-laws  and  list  of  members. 
This  volume  has,  however,  two  additional  features:  a  list  of 
names  of  the  members  of  the  organization  who  have  died,  and  also 
a  collection  of  portraits  of  past  and  present  officers  of  the  Associa- 
tion. This  latter  feature  could  have  been  made  more  valuable  if 
greater  care  had  been  exercised  in  the  making  of  the  electrotypes 
and  the  subsequent  printing ;  as  it  is,  the  pictures  do  not  compare 
favorably  with  the  really  artistic  illustrations  that  accompany  one 
of  the  contributed  articles,  that  on  "  The  Anatomy  of  the  Stem  of 
Derris  Uliginosa,  Benth.,"  by  P.  E.  F.  Perredes. 
One  other  very  important  feature,  and  one  that  should  receive 
more  attention  in  a  book  of  this  kind,  is  the  index.  For  a  book 
that  to  all  intents  and  purposes  is  a  work  of  reference  rather  than  a 
book  for  casual  reading,  the  index  in  this  volume  of  the  proceedings 
of  the  Association  is  decidedly  disappointing. 
This  shortcoming  will  be  the  more  appreciated  when  we  realize 
that  this  large  volume  of  1,266  pages,  more  than  400  of  which  are 
devoted  to  a  miscellaneous  collection  of  abstracts,  has  but  thirteen 
double-column  pages  devoted  to  the  index.  These  index  columns 
average  about  eighty  titles  each,  making  a  total  of  2,480  references, 
or  less  than  two  titles  for  each  page  in  the  book. 
This  deficiency  in  the  index  is  well  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  not 
a  single  one  of  the  names  included  under  the  obituaries  in  the 
report  of  the  secretary  of  the  Committee  on  Membership,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  index,  so  that  any  one  not  familiar  with  the  volumes  of 
the  proceedings  would  look  in  vain  for  an  obituary  of  Wm.  S. 
Thompson,  one  of  the  best-known  members  of  the  Association,  or  of 
William  Martindale,  an  honorary  member,  and  one  of  the  leaders  in 
the  pharmaceutical  profession  in  England.  Then,  too,  the  different 
reports  of  committees,  as  well  as  the  annual  addresses  of  the  Presi- 
dent and  the  chairmen  of  the  various  sections,  are  woefully  ne- 
glected as  far  as  any  attempt  to  index  the  various  subdivisions  of 
these  respective  communications  is  concerned. 
It  will,  of  course,  be  said  that  it  is  quite  easy  to  find  fault,  but  not 
so  easy  to  suggest  a  suitable  remedy.  Appreciating  this  argument, 
the  writer  would  like  to  offer  several  suggestions. 
