Am  Jour.  Pharm.  )  Book  Reviews.  ?27 
May,  1919.       }  01 
also  factors  in  promoting  other  scientific  arid  educatonal  interests. 
The  chemical  societies  of  the  time,  the  American  Philosophical 
Society,  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  the  Franklin  Institute, 
etc.,  all  reflected  their  activities  as  well  as  did  the  literature  of  the 
time  which  contained  their  published  records  of  experiments  and 
advances. 
As  we  complete  the  perusal  of  this  interesting  contribution  to  the 
history  of  "  Old  Philadelphia  "  and  the  olden  chemistry,  we  cannot 
refrain  from  expressing  the  wish  that  the  author  will  continue  his 
studies  along  these  lines  and  write  in  the  same  fascinating  style  of 
the  life  works  of  the  chemists  who  have  worked  in  Philadelphia 
and  vicinity  in  the  succeeding  decades  to  those  considered  in  "  Chem- 
istry in  Old  Philadelphia." 
G.  M.  B. 
Manual  of  Laboratory  Practice  for  Students  of  Pharmacy. 
By  George  B.  Kaffman,  BSc,  Ph.D.,  James  H.  Beal,  D.Sc, 
Phr.D.,  and  Julius  A.  Koch,  Ph.D.,  Phr.D.    Third  edition,  92 
pages,  interleaved.    Published  by  The  Midland  Publishing  Com- 
pany, Columbus,  Ohio.    $1.50  plus  postage. 
A  new  edition  of  this  laboratory  guide  for  pharmacy  students 
has  just  been  published.    The  table  of  contents  indicates  its  scope: 
"  Physical  operation,"  embracing  weights  and  measures,  specific 
gravity,  the  use  of  heat,  melting  and  boiling  points,  and  distillation. 
Then  about  35  illustrations  of  "galenical  preparations,"  followed 
by  manufacturing  processes  for  a  number  of  simpler  "  chemicals." 
Part  4  offers  about  35  "  prescriptions  "  for  compounding,  which 
have  evidently  been  selected  to  give  the  student  experience  in  the 
filling  of  a  variety  of  types.  Parts  5  and  6  take  up  "chemical 
laboratory  methods,"  first  those  related  to  volumetric  analysis,  then 
gravimetric.  In  the  last  chapter  "  pharmaceutical  assaying  "  is  con- 
sidered, including  alkaloidal  preparations,  formaldehyde,  spirit  of 
nitrous  ether,  pepsin  and  pancreatin. 
A  guide  of  this  character  is  doubtless  a  time  saver  for  the  in- 
structor of  a  laboratory,  and  makes  it  easy  for  the  student  to  carry 
out  the  work  assigned,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  any  two  group  of  men 
would  select  the  same  types  for  galenicals  or  prescriptions,  to  illus- 
trate pharmaceutical  practice,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  out- 
lines for  some  of  the  physical  operations,  the  prescriptions  selected 
