52 
Reviews,  elc. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
L        Jan..  1886. 
REV  I  KWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTIC  ES. 
The  Practice  of  Pharmacy.  A  treatise  on  the  modes  of  making  and  dispensing 
officinal,  unofficinal  and  extemporaneous  preparations,  with  descriptions  of 
their  properties,  uses  and  doses;  intended  as  a  hand-book  for  pharmacists  and 
physicians  and  a  text-book  for  students.  By  Joseph  P.  Kemington,  Ph.  G., 
Professor  of  Theory  and  Practice  of  Pharmacy,  and  Director  of  the  Pharma- 
ceutical Laboratory  in  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  etc.  With 
nearly  500  illustrations.  Philadelphia :  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  1885.  8vo, 
pp.  1080.    Price  $5.00 
By  the  appearance  of  this  work,  near  the  close  of  the  past  year,  a  book  has 
become  accessible  to  the  pharmacist  and  pharmaceutical  student  which  will 
prove  of  very  great  value  to  them.  Its  general  arrangement  and  classification, 
the.  judicious  distinction  made  between  important  and  unimportant  matters, 
the  correctness  of  statements,  the  clearness  of  diction  and  the  numerous  useful 
illustrations,  will  at  once  secure  for  it  deserved  commendation. 
The  introductory  portion  is  devoted  to  the  explanation  of  the  arrangement 
and  scope  of  pharmacopoeias  and  dispensatories.  Then  follows  Part  I.  of  the  work 
proper,  in  which,  upon  about  200  pa^es,  the  physical  operations  of  the  various 
pharmaceutical  processes  are  considered,  together  with  the  apparatus  required 
therefor.  Weights  and  measures,  the  operations  requiring  heat,  comminution ? 
filtration,  precipitation,  crystallization,  dialysis,  maceration,  expression,  perco- 
lation, etc.,  are  thus  brought  into  view  and  discussed  theoretically  and  in  their 
general  practical  application. 
The  next  150  pages  comprise  Part  II.,  the  officinal  liquid  pharmaceutical 
preparations,  such  as  solutions  of  different  kinds,  liniments,  infusions,  decoc- 
tions, tinctures,  fluid  extracts,  oleoresins  and  vinegars,  and  of  the  solid  prepa- 
rations, the  extracts,  abstracts  and  resins. 
The  two  parts  following  treat  of  the  chemical  medicinal  compounds  and  pro- 
ducts, Part  III.  being  devoted  to  the  inorganic  substances  (150  pages)  and  Part 
IV.  to  organic  substances  (230  pages).  The  former  are  arranged  in  the  main 
in  a  manner  similar  to  that  usually  found  in  chemical  text-books.  For  the 
grouping  together  of  the  latter  a  system  has  been  adopted  which  is  based 
upon  the  chemical  character  of  the  substance  or  of  the  principal  constituents 
of  the  drugs,  and  either  in  connection  therewith  or  subsequently  considers  the 
derivatives.  While  in  Part  III.  we  thus  have  the  non-metallic  elements,  fol- 
lowed by  the  alkalies,  alkaline  earths  and  the  various  heavier  metal e.  Part 
IV.  considers  first  the  carbohydrates  with  their  derivatives  obtained  by 
chemical  action,  fermentation  and  destructive  distillation,  then  the  volatile 
oils,  resins  and  allied  products,  fats  and  soaps,  glucosides  and  neutral  principles, 
alkaloids  and  animal  substances;  this  part  closes  with  a  chapter  on  pharma- 
ceutical testing. 
Part  V.,  on  extemporaneous  pharmacy,  occupies  220  pages  and  treats  of  dis- 
pensing prescriptions,  solutions,  mixtures,  powders,  troches,  pills,  suppositories 
and  cerates  and  allied  preparations  for  external  use. 
The  work  closes  with  Part  VI.,  which  contains  upon  32  pages  a  formulary  of 
well  selected  unofficinal  preparations,  and  is  followed  by  a  very  full  index 
covering  38  pages. 
That  the  work  on  its  first  appearance  has  become  so  voluminous,  we  think, 
