Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
May,  1879.  J 
Reviews y  etc. 
285 
Turning  our  attention  to  the  crude  drugs,  and  more  particularly  to  those  derived 
from  the  vegetable  kingdom  as  the  most  important,  we  find  after  a  brief  description 
of  the  drug  and  name  of  the  natural  order  whence  it  is  derived,  under  the  head  of 
Origin  a  concise  description  of  the  plant  from  which  it  is  obtained,  the  mode  of 
production,  the  general  appearance  as  found  in  the  market,  followed  by  an  account 
of  all  the  different  varieties  of  the  same  article  as  produced  in  different  localities  as 
commonly  met  with  in  commerce.  Detailed  botanical  descriptions  of  the  plants 
have  been  omitted,  thus  giving  more  space  for  the  introduction  of  a  new  feature 
headed  Descriptions,  where  are  found  dttailed  exhibits  of  the  striking  character- 
istics of  the  drug,  heretofore  greatly  missed  in  all  the  works  of  reference  generally 
at  the  disposal  of  the  pharmacist.  These  pharmacognostic-diagnoses,  founded  upon 
the  external  appearances  resulting  from  peculiar  morphological  features  and  pecu- 
liarities of  structure  characteristic  of  each  drug,  and  by  these  readily  distinguished 
from  every  other,  however  nearly  allied,  afford  thus  the  means  for  their  identifica- 
tion. Here,  to  aid  the  reader,  many  of  these  descriptions  are  illustrated  by  well- 
executed  figures,  either  of  the  full  plant  in  flower,  as,  for  example,  in  the  case  of 
Transverse  sections  of  Russian,  Chinese  and  European  Rhubarb. 
Aristolochia  serpentaria,  Hyoscyamus,  Dulcamara  and  Ci  Ichicum,  or  of  the  drug 
itself  as  found  in  the  market,  as  excellently  shown  in  the  representation  of  the  dif-  • 
ferent  kinds  of  cinchona  barks  and  the  sarsaparillas,  rhubarbs  and  numerous  other 
roots  and  barks,  of  which  sections  are  given  as  seen  under  the  magnifying  power  of 
the  lense  or  compound  microscope  to  show  their  structural  features  or  histological 
character,  as  in  Lycopodium,  Rottlera  and  Calisaya  bark. 
It  is  with  regret  that  we  do  not  find  similar  instructive  illustrations  more  fre- 
quently attached  to  the  drugs  derived  from  our  indigenous  plants  which  we  have 
found  oftener  subjected  to  fabrications,  designedly  or  through  ignorance  and 
