42 
Reviews,  etc. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.  1876. 
"  Sir; — The  publications  and  letter,  submitted  with  your  two  letters  of  8th  Dec,  are  herewith  re- 
turned, with  the  information  that  the  New  York  office  has  been  advissd  that  printed  matter,  stitched  into 
the  body  of  a  magazine,  and  having  reference  to  the  business  of  its  publishers,  is  held  to  be  an  integral 
part  thereof,  and  not  of  the  character  of  matter  referred  to  in  Section  142  Laws,  or  91  of  the  Regulations. 
"  I  am,  &c, 
(Signed)      J.  W.  MARSHALL,  1st  Asst.  P.  M.  Genl. 
'  "  GEO.  W,  FAIRMAN,  Esq.,  Postmaster,  Philadelphia,  Pa." 
The  Postmaster  of  New  York  has  informed  the  Business  Editor  that  the  detained 
Journals  had  been  delivered  immediately  after  the  above  decision  had  been  received. 
Lead  in  Muriatic  Acid. — Messrs.  G.  Mallinckrodt  &  Co  ,  of  St.  Louis,  Mo  , 
have  submitted  to  us  a  letter  from  Mr.  Fred.  Reppert,  of  Muscatine,  Iowa,  in  which 
it  is  stated  that  the  solution  of  chloride  of  iron  examined  by  him,  and  found  to  con- 
tain lead  (see  December  number,  1875,  p  575),  had  not  been  obtained  from  that 
manufacturing  house. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
The  Popular  Health  Almanac  for  1876.    Edited  by  Frederick  Hoffmann.  New 
York:  E.  Steiger.    iamo,  pp.  44. 
Tasclxenbuch  der  Geheimmittellehre.  Eine  kritische  Uebersicht  aller  bis  jetzt  unter- 
suchten  Geheimmittel,  zunachst  fur  Aerzte  und  Apotheker,  dann  zur  Belehrung 
und  Warnung  fiir  Jedermann.  Herausgegeben  von  Dr  G.  C.  Wittstein.  Vierte 
sehr  stark  vermehrte  Auflage.  Nordlingen  :  C.  H.  Beck'scheBuchhandlung.  1876, 
12VO,  pp.  301. 
Compendium  of  Secret  Medicines.  A  critical  review  of  all  secret  medicines  an- 
alyzed up  to  the  present  time.  For  physicians  and  pharmacists,  also  for  the  in- 
struction and  warning  of  everybody.  Edited  by  Dr.  G.  C.  Wittstein.  Fourth 
edition,  much  enlarged. 
The  tendency  of  the  above  two  works  is  the  same  in  their  aim,  to  expose  the 
frauds  and  dangers  connected  with  the  manufacture  or  with  the  use  of  the  secret  or 
so-called  patent  medicines.  Dr.  Wittstein's  work  was  introduced  to  our  readers 
some  years  ago,  when  we  published  a  number  of  formulas  contained  in  the  third 
edition  (see  "Amer.  Journ.  Pharm.,"  1871,  p.  111).  That  in  less  than  ten  years — 
the  first  edition  appeared  in  1866 — four  editions  have  become  necessary,  proves  the 
usefulness  of  the  work,  and  that  the  labor  of  its  editor  as  a  compiler  and  analyst  is 
well  appreciated.  The  present  volume  contains  the  composition  of  about  800  or 
more  nostrums,  cosmetics,  disinfectants,  etc.,  the  composition  of  which  has  been 
kept  secret  by  the  inventors  and  manufacturers.  Amongst  that  number  we  find  the 
United  States  well  represented,  considering  that  the  volume  is  in  the  first  line  in- 
tended to  find  its  field  of  usefulness  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  There  is,  how- 
ever, evidently  much  room  for  greater  activity  in  the  way  of  exposing  the  compo- 
sition of  the  numerous  nostrums,  whether  patented  or  not,  with  which  we  are  blessed 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  which  are  imported  from  the  other  side  to  supply 
any  possible  deficiency  as  to  variety  of  style  and  composition  5  and  we  would  im- 
