Am.  Jour.  Pbarm. 
May,  1913. 
Book  Reviews. 
229 
work  will  be  somewhat  curtailed  by  the  evident  incompleteness  and 
haste  with  which  it  has  been  prepared  for  publication.  There  is  a 
mass  of  valuable  material  which  will  prove  useful  to  every  analyst 
who  has  to  meet  such  problems  as  this  book  is  intended  to  aid  in 
solving  if  he  will  take  the  time  to  thoroughly  go  over  the  detailed 
scheme  of  separation  and  key  the  various  starting  points  of  new 
subdivisions  in  the  text,  to  agree  with  the  synopsis  of  the  scheme  as 
given  on  page  ix. 
It  is  also  a  matter  of  regret  that  the  author  did  not  think  it 
necessary  to  warn  the  analyst  who  follows  the  scheme,  of  the  un- 
reliability of  color  reactions  (p.  45,  etc.),  when  several  alkaloids 
may  be  present,  nor  to  mention  the  fact  that  tannin  is  often  ex- 
tracted from  acid  solutions  by  petroleum  ether  and  ether  in  amounts 
sufficient  to  obscure  color  reactions  for  small  amounts  of  other 
principles. 
The  chapter  (or  section  rather,  for  the  book  is  confusingly  run 
together  without  chapter  or  section  headings)  on  resins  is  very 
unsatisfactory  from  the  standpoint  of  an  analyst  who  wants  advice 
regarding  their  identication  and}  it  is  hardly  the  place  in  a  book 
of  this  character  to  quote  so  extensively  from  the  work  of  Powers 
and  Rogerson  on  the  subject  of  jalap  resin,  for  the  information 
given  is  of  no  practical  use  whatever. 
The  directions  for  the  preparation  of  the  aurochlorides  of  the 
solanum  bases  (p.  57)  is  scarcely  a  practical  procedure  on  account 
of  the  smallness  of  the  amount  of  such  bases  usually  found  in  a 
medicine.  The  table  of  melting  points  of  these  aurochlorides,  how- 
ever, belongs  here  and  not  on  page  76,  where  it  is  inserted  under 
the  resins,  an  unrelated  subject. 
Opposite  page  78  is  a  table  which  on  page  79  is  described  as 
giving  the  color  reactions  of  cocaine  and  other  local  anesthetics. 
Strangely  enough,  while  the  reactions  of  the  other  local  anesthetics 
are  given  in  detail,  cocaine  is  altogether  missing. 
The  detailed  directions  for  the  treatment  of  some  of  the  classes 
of  preparations  are  rather  disappointing.  Under  Emulsions  on 
page  88  the  advice  to  "examine  the  gummy  residue  on  the  filter" 
will  hardly  bring  joy  to  the  heart  of  the  analyst  who  arrives  at  this 
stage  of  the  work.  Under  Toothwashes,  a  list  of  numerous 
probable  ingredients  is  mentioned,  but  saccharin,  which  is  fre- 
quently used  as  a  combined  sweetener  and  antiseptic,  is  overlooked 
and  under  the  Dusting  Powders,  zinc  stearate,  a  frequent  constituent, 
is  also  omitted. 
