92  Reviews  and  Bibliographical  Notices.  {AMFibBi,'m3EM" 
cational,  as  well  as  the  political,  center  of  our  land.  In  fact,  gentlemen,  I  can 
see  no  reason  why  we  should  not  act  upon  that  proposition  now. 
"The  step-motherly  treatment  that  our  city  has  received  at  the  hands  of  our 
fellow-citizens  throughout  the  States,  is  as  proverbial  as  it  is  inconsistent. 
They  have  chided  us  because  we  did  not,  in  our  sweat,  improve  the  common 
property,  surround  the  public  buildings  with  splendid  avenues,  and  prepare  for 
them  a  city  in  which  they  may  take  pride  and  delight,  until  we  have  returned 
good  for  evil,  and  brought  them  to  an  inglorious  surrender  withal. 
"  They  berated  us  because  the  capital  of  the  nation  was  not  what  they  would 
have  it,  because  it  was  not  worthy  of  the  nation,  because  it  had  no  attractions,, 
but  especially  because  it  had  no  national  institutions  of  any  kind  save  the  gov- 
ernmental departments.  They  expected  to  find  at  Washington  not  only  such: 
advantages  as  they  had  been  accustomed  to  in  their  respective  States,  but 
above  all  everything  that  they  did  not  have  themselves.  And  why?  Because, 
as  they  have  repeatedly  told  us,  the  capital  of  the  nation  ought  to  have  such: 
institutions. 
"  When  Pericles,  the  Greek,  was  accused  by  his  countrymen  of  squandering 
the  public  money  on  those  noble  national  edifices,  of  which  Athens  afterwards 
boasted,  he  offered  to  execute  them  at  his  own  expense,  provided  the  people 
would  suffer  him  to  inscribe  his  name  on  them  instead  of  theirs.  We  do  not 
wonder  that  the  Athenians  keenly  felt  the  rebuke.  But  what  are  we  to  say, 
who  have  singlehanded  undertaken  to  provide  for  our  exacting  countrymen 
without  experiencing  a  sign  of  encouragement,  or  claiming  a  tittle  of  the  honor 
for  ourselves !  Let  us  tell  them  that  we  have  ceased  to  be  sensible  to  their 
unjust  reproaches,  but  that  we  still  have  faith  in  the  future,  and  in  the  generous- 
national  pride  that  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  American  heart,  well  knowing  that 
the  loudest  are  the  least  generous'1 
When  the  Professor,  further  on,  says  that  the  institutions  in  Washington 
"  must  not — nay,  cannot  be  sectional  to  succeed,''  we  feel  compelled  to  express 
our  sincere  regret  that  he  does  not  draw  a  distinction  between  "sectional "  and 
"  local,"  and  to  state  that  our  views  are  still  those  expressed  in  our  November 
number,  and  cannot  be  changed  upon  the  empty  accusations  of  sneering  and 
uncharitableness. 
EEVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
The  Phannacopccia  of  the  United  States  of  America.  Fifth  decennial  revision. 
Ky  authority  of  the  National  Convention  for  revising  the  Pharmacopoeia 
held  at  Washington,  D.  C,  A.  D.  1870.  Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lippincott  & 
Co.    1873.    12mo,  pp.  405.    Price,  $1.75. 
This  anxiously  looked-for  work  has  at  last  made  its  appearance,  and,  consid- 
ering the  labor  that  has  been  bestowed  upon  it,  and  the  great  care  necessary 
in  printing  to  avoid  errors  of  sense  not  only,  but  also  to  render  the  language 
uniform  throughout,  the  delay  has  not  been  too  long. 
In  accordance  with  a  resolution  of  the  National  Convention,  the  scope  of 
the  work  has  been  rather  extended,  so  as  to  adapt  it  to  the  wants  of  our 
extended  country.  Accordingly  27  articles  have  been  added  to  the  lists  of 
materia  medica,  and  82  new  preparations  were  admitted,  while  only  12  drugs 
and  preparations  have  been  dismissed,  and  the  formulas  of  most  of  the  pharma- 
ceutical preparations  and  some  of  the  chemicals  have  been  more  or  less- 
altered. 
Individually  we  are  not  in  favor  of  the  arrangement  which  is  still  adhered  to* 
in  our  Pharmacopoeia — the  only  modern  one,  we  believe — of  dividing  the  medi- 
