54Q 
Book  Reviews. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
'  November,  1905. 
at  the  present  day."  The  names  of  the  authors  are  a  sufficient 
guarantee  of  its  being  an  authoritative  work  on  the  drugs  and  prep, 
arations  which  are  used  in  medicine  at  the  present  time.  It  requires 
new  men  to  write  a  new  book,  and  it  is  fortunate  that  the  publishers 
secured  the  services  of  men  in  their  prime  and  permitted  them  to 
entirely  recast  the  book  in  accordance  with  the  latest  discoveries 
and  researches.  There  has  been  a  need  of  just  such  elimination  as 
has  been  made  in  the  constructing  of  the  present  dispensatory.  There 
has  been  much  in  all  of  the  dispensatories  which  is  irrelevant  to  the 
books  and  of  but  little  use  to  the  readers.  There  is  more  real  infor- 
mation, for  instance,  in  the  article  of  a  page  and  a  quarter  on  Abrus 
in  the  National  Standard  Dispensatory,  than  was  contained  in  the 
two-and-one  half-page  article  on  the  same  drug  in  the  National 
Dispensatory. 
Dr.  Rusby  has  written  the  botany  and  pharmacognosy,  including 
the  minor  as  well  as  the  major  drugs  of  the  entire  globe,  a  service 
never  before  rendered.  This  part  is  supplemented  by  a  large  num- 
ber of  excellent  illustrations  by  the  skilful  botanical  artist,  Mrs. 
Beutenmiiller.  Prof.  Caspari,  with  a  corps  of  assistants,  has  con- 
sidered the  pharmacy  and  chemistry  of  the  book,  giving  full  infor- 
mation regarding  methods  and  products,  with  descriptions  and 
explanations  of  the  most  approved  apparatus  and  tests.  Dr.  Hare 
has  written  the  section  on  Medical  Action  and  Uses,  giving  a  direct 
and  compact  presentation  of  modern  therapeutics.  An  Appendix 
of  60  pages  contains  all  necessary  tables,  formulas,  tests,  etc.,  for 
practical  use.  The  General  Index,  of  about  90  pages,  contains  full 
reference  to  every  page  in  the  text,  making  it  a  repertory  of  the 
world's  knowledge  of  drugs,  and  the  Therapeutical  Index,  of  about 
40  pages,  contains,  under  the  name  of  each  disease,  references  to  all 
the  medicines  employed  in  its  treatment.  The  volume  is  embellished 
with  about  478  new  and  instructive  engravings  in  the  text. 
The  National  Standard  Dispensatory  is  creditable  to  the  authors 
and  publishers  and  will  be  found  useful  as  a  reference  book  not  only 
by  pharmacists  and  physicians  but  also  by  chemists,  botanists,  and 
others  desiring  information  on  any  of  the  substances  used  in  medi- 
cine and  in  the  arts. 
A  Manual  of  Organic  Materia  Medica  and  Pharmacognosy. — 
By  Lucius  E.  Sayre,  Dean  ot  the  School  of  Pharmacy  of  the  Uni- 
