382  Reviews  and  Bibliographical  Notices.  {^Aug.' 
Am.  Jour.  Phaem. 
1, 1871. 
In  this  connection  we  desire  to  point  out  to  pharmacists  and  to  physicians 
the  importance  of  using  none  but  that  occurring  in  well  defined  crystals^  It  is 
not  improvable  that  many  of  the  bad  effects  complained  of  by  some  physicians, 
as  well  as  some  of  the  decompositions  that  are  said  to  have  occurred  in  medi- 
cines, may  be  altogether  attributable  to  impure  chloral  hydrate  in  a  state  of 
decomposition. 
The  Commissioners  appointed  by  the  Mayor  of  New  York  have  given  notice, 
through  the  newspapers  (English  and  German),  that  the  examination  of  all 
druggists  and  prescription  clerks  will  take  place  on  Tuesdays  and  Thursdays 
of  each  week,  between  the  hours  of  10  A.  M.  and  3  P.  M.  Druggists  will  be 
examined  first,  in  alphabetical  order,  afterwards  the  clerks. 
The  subjects  for  examination  will  be  chemistry,  poisons  and  their  antidotes, 
practical  pharmacy  and  officinal  botany,  materia  medica  and  adulterations  of 
drugs  and  prescriptions. 
According  to  the  advertisements  in  the  German  language,  the  following  are 
among  the  subjects  for  examination,  evidently  mistakes  made  in  translating 
the  original  notice:  Practice  of  medicine  (praktische  Heilkunde),  botanical 
drugs  and  the  making  (Bereitung)  of  drugs. 
The  notice  is  signed  by  all  the  Commissioners,  Professor  Doremus,  President, 
and  by  Mr.  Louis  G.  Branda,  as  Secretary. 
We  learn  that  the  fees  for  certificates  have  been  fixed  as  follows  :  Druggists 
and  drug  clerks,  ^30;  prescription  clerks,  $10  ;  and  that  the  probable  amount 
of  fees  for  the  first  registration  is  estimated  at  $23,000.  Wherein  the  distinc- 
tion is  drawn  by  the  board  between  drug  clerks  and  prescription  clerks,  we  have 
not  been  informed. 
Murdering  the  Unborn. — A  correspondent  has  sent  us  the  circular  of  a  New 
York  firm,  which  is  being  mailed  to  all  prominent  druggists,  offering  for  sale 
the  female  monthly  pills  of  a  notorious  woman  who  inhabits  a  large  mansion 
near  Fifth  Avenue,  in  New  York  City,  and  whose  career  was  there,  recently, 
pictured  in  a  court  of  justice,  during  the  trial  of  an  abortionist,  more  unlucky 
than  she,  who  has  thus  far  escaped  the  punishment  so  justly  deserved. 
For  the  information  of  the  agent  of  this  vile  nostrum  we  would  state  that  in 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania  he  has  made  himself  liable  to  the  provisions  of  the 
law  against  the  circulation  or  distribution  of  publications  relating  to  medicines 
for  females,  and  that  the  penalty  for  such  an  offence  is  a  fine  not  exceeding  one 
thousand  dollars,  and  imprisonment  not  exceeding  six  months. 
The  enactment  of  similar  laws  in  other  States  would  at  least  lessen  the  op- 
portunities and  facilities  of  procuring  the  means  for  murdering  the  unborn. 
EEVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Opium  and  the  Opium  Appetite,  with  notices  of  alcoholic  beverages,  cannabis 
indica,  tobacco  and  coca,  and  tea  and  coffee  in  their  hygienic  aspects  and 
pathologic  relations.  By  Alonzo  Calkins,  M.D.  Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lip- 
pincott  &  Co.    ]871.    8vo,  390  pages. 
An  interesting  volume,  similar  in  some  respects  to  Cooke's  Seven  Sisters  of 
