Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
December,  1895.  J 
Reviews. 
637 
minims  ;  tr.  strophanthus,  4  minims  ;  tr.  belladonna,  5  minims,"  and,  as  if  that 
were  not  enough,  he  "  hurriedly  administered  6  grains  of  caffeine."  The  result 
of  this  multifold  treatment  was  the  survival  of  the  patient,  in  spite  of  adverse 
circumstances,  and  the  enthusiastic  physician  sat  down  to  write  up  the  case  in 
the  most  glowing  terms.  He  gave  all  the  credit  to  himself  and  the  caffeine, 
and  at  the  same  time  he  hastily  and  carelessly  endeavored  to  blacken  the  repu- 
tation of  some  unoffending  pharmacist  who  had  been  doing  his  duty.  The 
author,  however,  neglected  to  state  that  he  administered  the  caffeine  hypo- 
dermically  ;  we  presume  that  was  what  he  did  ;  but  if  he  did  not,  the  contribu- 
tion has  no  excuse  whatever  for  its  existence,  for  caffeine,  as  the  active  con- 
stituent of  infusion  of  coffee,  has,  for  a  long  time,  been  successfully  employed 
in  opium  poisoning. 
Finally,  this  man  of  many  titles  did  not  state  why  this  medical  student  "  of 
marked  mental  attainments  "  was  pouring  medicine  down  his  throat  at  3. 30 
a.m.,  when  he  ought  to  have  been  in  bed  asleep  ;  he  did  not  say  whether  the 
patient  had  been  trying  to  increase  the  action  of  the  Dover's  powder  by  the 
free  ingestion  of  hot  drinks,  and  he  did  not  even  suggest  what  he  would  have 
done  if  his  patient  had  not  had  "marked  mental  attainments." 
We  thought  to  extract  a  grain  of  comfort  from  the  final  paragraph,  however^ 
when  we  read  that  the  patient  "  probably  would  have  survived  the  ingestion  of 
the  fifteen  grains  of  the  powder,"  but  we  suddenly  remembered  that  it  is 
usually  not  the  ingestion  which  kills  ;  he  had  survived  that  before  he  reached 
the  doctor's  office. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
A  Treatise  on  Pharmacy  for  Students  and  Pharmacists.  By  Charles 
Caspari,  Jr.,  Ph.G.,  with  288  illustrations;  Philadelphia  :  Lea  Brothers  &  Co. 
1895.    Pp.  679.    Cloth,  $4.50. 
A.  new  book  on  pharmacy  is  always  a  matter  of  considerable  interest  to 
pharmacists.  This  is  the  second  one  that  has  been  issued  within  a  year, 
besides  the  revised  edition  of  a  third  one. 
We  are  told  in  the  preface  that  "  the  motive  for  writing  this  book  was,  in  the 
main,  to  supply  students  of  pharmacy  with  a  text-book  which,  while  sufficiently 
comprehensive  to  serve  as  a  trustworthy  guide,  should  be  devoid  of  all  unne- 
cessary material,  such  as  official  and  unofficial  formulas,  etc.,  readily  accessible 
in  the  Pharmacopoeia  and  such  books  of  reference  as  are  usually  found  in 
drug  stores." 
The  book  is  divided  into  three  parts :  Part  I  comprises  General  Pharmacy. 
Part  II  treats  of  Practical  Pharmacy.  Part  III  is  devoted  to  Pharmaceutical 
Chemistry. 
Part  I  opens  with  a  chapter  on  each  of  the  following  subjects  :  Pharma" 
copceias,  Weights  and  Measures,  Specific  Gravity,  Heat,  Collection  and  Pre- 
servation of  Crude  Drugs  ;  then  such  operations  as  grinding,  solution  and 
percolation  are  considered.  Part  II  considers  the  various  classes  of  official  pre- 
parations, like  Waters,  Infusions,  Fluid  Extracts,  etc.,  and,  after  a  general 
treatment  of  the  group,  the  members  are  arranged  alphabeticallv,  and  the 
composition  of  each  is  given.    The  chapter  on  Mixtures  in  this  part  contains 
