Am.  Jour.  Pharm  ) 
Jan.,  1879.  j 
Reviews  y  etc. 
59 
"  Inasmuch  as  the  right  to  practice  medicine  is  a  mere  statutory  privilege,  subject 
to  be  changed  at  any  time  by  the  Legislature,  and  does  not  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a 
contractor  of  property,  there  is  no  reason  why  such  a  privilege  should  not  be  denied 
to  one  man  and  extended  to  another  in  the  discretion  of  the  legislators.  In  this 
view,  the  objection  to  the  law  for  want  of  uniformity  in  its  application  fails,  and  to 
this  purport  are  the  decisions  of  The  People  <vs.  Judge  of  12th  District,  17  Cali- 
fornia, 547,  and  Cohen  <vs.  Wright,  22  California,  321,  and  other  cases. 
"  The  prayer  for  injunction  will  therefore  be  denied." 
Gallate  of  Atropia. — A  correspondent  in  Texas  has  asked  our  opinion  concerning 
the  possibility  of  combining  gallic  acid  with  atropia  to  a  saline  compound.  From 
the  few  experiments  which  we  have  made,  we  believe  that  such  a  compound  may 
be  obtained,  though  we  have  as  yet  not  obtained  it  in  an  uniformly  crystalline  con- 
dition. Both  articles  are  slightly  soluble  in  water,  but  freely  soluble  in  alcohol. 
Gallic  acid  is  a  tribasic  acid,  having  a  molecular  weight  =  188.  The  molecular 
weight  of  atropia  is  289.  To  form  a  neutral  salt,  one  part  of  the  former  would 
require  rather  more  than  4-6  parts  of  the  alkaloid.  The  combination  is  best  effected 
in  alcoholic  solution.  But  even  if  a  salt  of  definite  composition  could  be  readily 
obtained,  we  doubt  its  superiority  over  other  soluble  salts  of  atropia,  since  the 
amount  of  gallic  acid  in  a  medicinal  dose  of  its  atropia  salt  would  be  too  minute 
for  exerting  any  characteristic  influence. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Yearbook  of  Pharmacy,  comprising  abstracts  of  papers  relating  to  Pharmacy,  Materia 
Medica  and  Chemistry  contributed  to  British  and  foreign  journals  from  July  1, 
1877,  to  June  30,  1878,  with  the  Transactions  of  the  British  Pharmaceutical  Con- 
ference at  the  Fifteenth  Annual  Meeting,  held  in  Dublin  August,  1878.  London  : 
J.  &  A.  Churchill,  1878.    8vo,  pp.  627. 
The  year-book  occupies  the  first  390  pages  of  this  volume,  the  remaining  pages 
being  occupied  by  the  lists  of  members,  the  minutes,  officers'  reports,  papers  read 
and  discussions  at  the  meeting.  A  report  of  the  meeting  will  be  found  on  page 
504  of  the  October  number,  and  several  of  the  papers  read  have  since  been  pub- 
lished in  the  Journal.  The  typographical  execution  and  the  general  appearance  of 
the  book  is  in  the  usual  good  style  which  we  have  been  accustomed  to  see  in  the 
previous  volumes.  On  page  385  we  notice  that  credit  is  given  for  a  paper  by  Mr. 
H.  Betz  on  Sapo  viridis,  to  the  Petersb.  Med.  Wochenschr.,  1877,  No.  20,  while,  we 
believe,  that  the  original  appeared  in  this  journal  February,  1878. 
Medicinal  Plants;  being  descriptions  with  original  figures  of  the  principal  plants 
employed  in  medicine  and  an  account  of  their  properties  and  uses.  By  Robert 
Bentley,  F.L.S.,  and  Henry  Trimen,  M.B.,  F.L.S.  Philadelphia:  Lindsay  & 
Blakiston,  1878.    4to.    Price  per  part,  $2.00 
Parts  33  and  34  of  this  handsome  and  useful  work  now  before  us  contain  the  fol- 
lowing plants:  Allium  sativum,  Lin.;  Citrullus  colocynthis,  Schrader ;  Citrus 
medica,  Risso ;  Citrus  vulgaris,  Risso  ;  Coffea  arabica,  Lin.;  Dorema  ammoniacum, 
Don  ;  Gossypium  barbadense,  Lin.;  Prunus  serotina,  Ehrh.;  Saccharum  officinarum, 
Lin.;  Salix  alba,  Lin  ;  Statice  caroliniana,  Walter;  Taraxacum  officinale,  Wiggers ; 
Ulmus  campestris,  Lin.;  Ulmus  fulva,  Mich.  Most  of  the  plants  figured  and 
described  in  these  two  parts  are  either  indigenous  or  cultivated  in  the  United  States,, 
and  both  the  plates  and  letter  press  are  as  excellently  executed  as  in  the  preceding 
Darts. 
