294  Reviews  and  Bibliographical  Notices.  {Amj™uejISarm" 
Course  in  Pharmaceutical  Arithmetic,  including  Weights  and 
Measures.  By  Julius  William  Stunner,  Ph.G.,  Professor  of  Phar- 
macy, Purdue  University,  Lafayette,  Ind.    1903.    Cloth,  $1.50. 
Too  much  stress  cannot  be  laid  upon  the  necessity  for  a  certain 
amount  of  arithmetical  skill  on  the  part  of  pharmacists  and  students 
of  pharmacy  as  well.  Indeed,  the  pharmacist  never  puts  up  a  pre- 
scription or  makes  a  preparation  without  an  exercise  of  the  mathe- 
matical function,  whether  he  be  conscious  of  the  fact  or  not. 
Moreover,  the  curricula  in  our  colleges  and  schools  of  pharmacy 
presuppose  a  mathematical  training  on  the  part  of  the  students,  and 
where  this  has  not  been  sufficiently  thorough,  there  seems  ample 
justification  for  the  establishment  of  a  course  of  instruction  in  phar- 
maceutical arithmetic.  Indeed,  this  question  would  hardly  seem  to 
require  any  argument  in  the  affirmative,  since  a  mathematical  train- 
ing is  essential  in  the  study  of  the  sciences  which  the  student  of 
pharmacy  takes  up,  and  particularly  since  no  pharmacist  can  afford 
to  be  deficient  in  that  branch  of  arithmetic  which  the  author  of  the 
book  at  hand  is  pleased  to  term  pharmaceutical. 
Professor  Sturmer  does  not  aim  to  teach  the  principles  of  arith- 
metic, but  to  apply  these  principles  to  pharmaceutical  calculations. 
His  book  seems  to  cover  the  field  designated  quite  well,  and  will  be 
of  value  to  both  students  and  pharmacists. 
It  may  not  be  amiss  to  state  that  special  attention  is  given  to  the 
meaning  of  percentage  in  prescription-work,  weight-percentage, 
volume-percentage,  and  weight-to-volume-solutions  being  discussed 
in  detail. 
Another  feature  of  the  book  to  which  it  seems  opportune  to  call 
attention,  is  that  giving  the  rules  for  capitalizing  the  names  of  metric 
units.  It  is  stated  that  usually  the  names  of  primary  units  and  the 
larger  secondary  units  are  written  with  a  capital,  as  Meter,  Deka- 
meter,  Myriagramme,  while  the  smaller  secondary  units  are  written 
with  a  small  initial,  as  milligramme,  decimeter,  etc.  These  rules 
apply  likewise  to  the  abbreviations  for  these  units,  but  in  the  U.  S. 
Pharmacopoeia  all  abbreviations  of  metric  units  are  capitalized.  It 
would  seem  that  for  the  sake  of  making  a  yet  nearer  approach  to 
uniformity,  the  Pharmacopoeia  should  adopt  the  above  rules. 
F.  Y. 
