Reviews,  etc. 
Am.  four.  Pharm. 
Nov.,  1879. 
First  Book  in  Qualitative  Chemistry.  By  Albert  B.  Prescott,  Professor  of  Applied 
Chemistry  in  the  University  of  Michigan,  etc.  New  York  :  D.  Van  Nostrand, 
1.879.    i2mo,  pp.  160. 
A  work  on  chemical  analysis,  having  for  its  author  a  teacher  of  the  experience  of 
Prof.  Prescott,  cannot  fail  to  attract  attention,  and  the  book  before  us  merits  it. 
We  are  informed  in  the  preface  that  this  little  manual  has  been  prepared  for 
certain  classes  who  take  a  short  course  in  qualitative  chemical  work  to  attain  some 
practical  acquaintance  with  the  materials  of  everyday  life,  rather  than  to  qualify  as 
analysts.  The  scope  of  the  work  includes  a  more  definite  study  of  chemical  char- 
acteristics than  is  provided  in  the  common  rudimentary  qualitative  analysis.  The 
work  will  be  found  useful  and  convenient  by  teachers  in  the  instruction  of  students 
who  have  but  a  limited  time  to  devote  to  the  subject,  and  as  a  preliminary  guide  to 
the  use  of  larger  works  on  mineral  analysis. 
The  Multum  in  Parnjo  Reference  and  Dose  Book.     By  C.  Henry  Leonard,  M.A., 
M.D.    Detroit,  1879.    PP-  IO°- 
Doses,  pronunciation,  incompatibles,  poisons  and  antidotes,  testing  urinary 
deposits,  and  other  subjects  of  interest  to  the  physician,  are  briefly  treated.  In  the 
dose  list  the  officinal  articles  and  unofficinal  drugs  are  enumerated,  together  with  all 
sorts  of  specialties,  the  strength  and  composition  of  which  remain  the  secret  of 
their  inventors  and  manufacturers — in  our  opinion  a  weighty  objection  to  a  book 
intended  for  reference  by  the  physician. 
A  Compendium  of  the  most  Important  Drugs ,  nvith  their  Doses,  According  to  the  Metric 
System.  By  Wm.  F.  Whitney,  M.D.,  and  J.  H.  Clark,  Apothecary  to  the 
Boston  Dispensary.    Boston:  A.  Williams  &  Co.,  1879.    Price,  25  cents. 
This  little  pamphlet  is  full'of  typographical  errors  5  for  instance,  hydrargyrum  is 
spelled  hydrag.  thirteen  times  in  succession.  The  doses,  as  far  as  examined,  appear 
to  be  correct. 
Report  of  the  Committee  on  Coinage,  Weights  and  Measures.  Part  I.  On  the  adop- 
tion of  the  metric  system  of  weights  and  measures,  together  with  documents  and 
statistics  relating  to  the  subject.  Part  II.  On  metric  coinage.  Washington  : 
Government  Printing  Office,  1879.    8voj  PP-  2l8- 
The  Metric  System.  By  J.  T.  Baldwin,  M.D.,  Professor  of  Anatomy  Columbus 
Medical  College.    8vo,  pp.  11. 
The  first  of  these  two  documents  is  an  elaborate  official  report  in  favor  of  the 
adoption  of  the  metric  system.  The  second  embraces  remarks  made  by  Dr.  Bald- 
win before  the  Ohio  State  Medical  Society  in  opposition  to  the  introduction  of  the 
metric  system.  The  dire  consequences  depicted  by  Dr.  Baldwin  as  resulting  from 
the  general  adoption  of  this  system  have  been  avoided  by  the  nations  that  are  now 
using  it,  and  we  have  no  doubt  would  not  prove  as  formidable  an  obstacle  in  the 
United  States  as  the  author  believes.  But  we  decidedly  object  to  his  assertion  of 
there  being  three  metric  systems  proposed  for  use  in  medicine.  It  is  true  that  propo- 
