Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1915. 
Book  Reviews. 
225 
author  has  endeavored  to  treat  these  subjects  as  thoroughly  as 
possible.  Chapter  VII  describes  the  methods  employed  in  detecting 
carbon  monoxide  in  blood,  in  recognizing  blood  itself  in  stains,  and 
in  differentiating  human  from  animal  blood. 
This  work  is  of  very  great  value  to  the  practical  chemist  and 
will  be  of  interest  to  pharmacists,  as  it  contains  a  great  amount  of 
information  on  drug  assaying,  alkaloidal  chemistry,  and  toxicological 
methods  of  procedure.  The  work  has  become  of  an  international 
character,  translations  of  the  original  German  work  having  been 
made  into  English,  Spanish,  and  Italian. 
Squire's  Pocket  Companion  to  the  British  Pharmacopoeia, 
1914,  Second  Edition.  J.  and  A.  Churchill,  7  Great  Marlborough 
Street,  London,  W.  Foolscap  octavo,  pp.  1040  (i6mo.)  ;  measure- 
ment 6%  x  4/4  x  15/i6,  weight  nj/2  oz.  Price,  10s.  6d.  net.  The 
First  Edition  of  Squire's  Pocket  Companion  to  the  B.  P.  was  pub- 
lished in  1904,  and  resulted  from  the  necessity  of  dividing  the  older 
Squire's  Companion  to  the  British  Pharmacopoeia  into  two  publica- 
tions, owing  to  the  very  great  increase  in  matter  which  had  to  be 
reviewed.  The  present,  or  Second  Edition,  follows  the  style  of  its 
predecessors,  and  is  arranged  in  alphabetical  order,  thus  obviating 
the  necessity  for  frequent  reference  to  the  index,  each  monograph 
being  subdivided  into  paragraphs,  first  a  description  of  the  drug 
with  its  usual  method  of  preparation,  solubility,  medicinal  properties, 
dose,  prescribing  notes,  incompatibles,  official  preparations,  not 
official  preparations,  and  antidotes.  This  subdivision  of  the  mono- 
graphs is  adopted  for  the  purpose  of  making  the  book  as  convenient 
and  practical  a  work  of  reference  as  possible  for  both  prescriber  and 
dispenser.  A  clear  distinction  in  type  enables  the  reader  to  dis- 
tinguish at  once  whether  a  drug  or  preparation  is  official  or  not 
official,  and  this  is  further  supplemented,  except  where  the  official 
preparation  immediately  follows  the  principal  monograph,  by  a 
complete  list  of  the  official  and  not  official  preparations. 
The  subject  of  solubility  has  always  been  a  feature  of  Squire's 
Companion,  and  dates  back  to  the  First  Edition  in  1864.  For  the 
present  volume  the  figures  have  had  to  be  carefully  revised,  and 
where  a  disparity  exists  between  the  official  figures  and  those  given 
in  the  Companion  they  have  been  carefully  redetermined  and,  if 
necessary,  modified.  As  an  instance  of  the  amount  of  work  involved 
on  these  paragraphs  alone,  the  change  of  the  official  ether  from 
