Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  | 
Dec,  1883.  J 
Reviews,  etc. 
637 
Principles  of  Theoretical  Chemistry,  with  special  reference  to  the  Constitu- 
tion of  Cliemica]  Compounds.  By  Ira  Remsen,  Professor  of  Chemistry 
in  the  Johns  Hopkins  University.  Second  edition,  thoroughly  revised 
and  enlarged.  Philadelphia:  Henry  C.  Lea's  Son  &  Co.,  1883.  12mo, 
pp.  242. 
When  the  first  edition  made  its  appearance,  in  1877,  we  welcomed  it  as  a 
very  valuable  addition  to  literature ;  the  more  we  have  consulted  it  since 
that  time,  the  more  we  have  appreciated  its  value.  A  large  portion  of  the^ 
book  is  devoted  to  the  so-called  structural  or  constitutional  formulas,  which 
are  often  freely  used  as  a  fashionable  plaything ;  and  such  wholesale  use  to 
express  something  about  which  absolutely  nothing  is  known,  has  tended  to 
bring  them  into  disrepute.  Constitutional  formulas  are  intended  to  expres^. 
certain  reactions,  of  synthesis  as  well  as  of  decomposition,  and  to  recall 
analogies.  These  points  are  lucidly  discussed  in  the  chapters  on  Definition 
of  Constitution,  and  on  Linkage  of  Atoms.  In  another  place  the  author 
says  :  The  formula  CH3 — OH  does  not  mean  that  hydroxyl  (OH)  is  neces- 
sarily present  in  the  compound,  or  that  CH3  is  present,  but  that  the  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  compound  bear  such  relations  to  each  other  that  when  the 
compound  is  decomposed  it  acts  as  if  the  parts  were  united  as  the  formula 
indicates ;  the  formula  suggests  possibilities ;  it  may  not  represent  realities.. 
The  value  of  the  b.ook  depends,  on  the  one  hand,  upon  the  ground  which 
it  covers,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  upon  the  impartial  manner  in  which  the 
various  hypotheses  are  discussed  from  a  purely  objective  standpoint.  The 
book  deserves  to  be  placed  in  the  hand  of  every  student  of  chemistry. 
Syllabus  of  Pharmacy  Course,  Department  of  Pharmacy,  Massachusetts- 
College  of  Pharmacy,  Boston,  Mass.  By  Edgar  L.  Patch,  Ph.G.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Theory  and  Practice  of  Pharmacy.    Boston,  1883.    8vo,  pp.  63. 
The  author  states  that  this  syllabus  has  been  in  part  modeled  upon  that 
published  by  the  late  Prof.  Procter  in  Proceedings  of  the  American  Phar- 
maceutical Association,  1858.  Like  the  latter,  it  is  divided  into  two  parts, 
the  first  one  comprising  the  study  of  the  physical  laws  applicable  to  the 
various  pharmaceutical  manipulations,  of  the  requisite  apparatus  and  aids,- 
the  different  classes  of  preparations,  dispensing  pharmacy,  etc.  The  second 
part  gives  lists  of  the  various  drugs,  arranged  in  groups,  according  to  their 
most  prominent  constituents.  These  lists  are  arranged  in  tabular  form, 
and  generally  contain  the  common  name,  the  officinal  name  and  prepara- 
tions, the  botanical  source  and  habitat  of  plant.  A  further  classification  of 
the  drugs  comprised  in  each  list  has  not  been  attempted,  they  being  enu- 
merated mainly  in  alphabetical  order,  although  exceptions  to  this  rule  are 
by  no  means  rare.  Classifying  drugs  by  their  pharmaceutical  affinities 
offers  greater  difficulties  than  their  arrangement  upon  therapeutical 
grounds,  chiefly  because  the  nature  of  many  of  the  medicinally  unimportant 
or  worthless  principles  are  insufficently  known,  although  their  presence^ 
like  a  number  of  so-called  resins  and  pectin  compounds,  offer  peculiar 
obstacles  to  the  permanence  or  elegance  of  galenical  preparations.  Yet  it 
would  seem  that  belladonna,  stramonium  and  hyoscyamus  are  pharmaceu- 
tically  as  closely  related,  as  uva  ursi  and  chimaphila,  or  nux  vomica  and 
ignatia,  or  as  the  different  species  of  artemisia  or  the  various  chamomiles. 
The  author  intends  this  syllabus  to  be  the  merest  outline  of  a  course  of 
