EDITORIAL.  • 
287 
Descriptive  Catalogue  of  Fluid  and  Solid  Extracts  in  Vacuo  ;  also  con- 
centrations and  officinal  pills,  prepared  by  Henry  Thayer  &  Company. 
With  formulas  and  receipts.    Cambridgeport,  Mass.,  1866. 
From  the  elegant  manner  in  which  this  catalogue  is  gotten  up,  one 
might  fancy  it  a  book  intended  for  the  parlor  table,  being  well  printed  on 
expensive  paper,  and  handsomely  bound.  It  is  not  a  mere  catalogue  of 
preparations,  however,  having  some  claims  that  point  to  Materia  Medica, 
and  many  recipes  for  preparations  in  Pharmacy  ;  but  on  close  examina- 
tion it  will  be  observed  that,  though  a  catalogue  of  fluid  extracts,  anda 
catalogue  of  formulas,  it  contains  no  formulas  of  fluid  or  solid  extracts, 
and  that  nearly  all  the  other  preparations  are  made  from  the  fluid  ex- 
tracts. In  fact,  it  is  the  same  method  of  advertising  Mr.  Thayer's  fluid 
extracts  that  a  few  years  back  was  practised  by  Tilden  &  Company  in 
a  similar  volume.  The  idea  is,  that  physicians  and  apothecaries  will  find 
it  convenient  to  make  the  preparations  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  from  these 
fluid  extracts,  and  thus  save  all  the  labor  and  trouble  and  skill  required 
to  prepare  them  from  the  drugs.  Now  we  protest  against  this  pro- 
cedure as  calculated  to  injure  the  practice  of  Pharmacy  and  lower  its 
standard,  removing  from  those  who  use  these  extracts  for  this  purpose 
all  means  by  which  they  can  know  the  quality  of  the  resulting  dilutions. 
It  would  be  some  reason  in  its  favor  did  we  know  that  the  preparations 
it  advertises  were  made  by  the  Pharmacopoeia  recipes,  when  officinal,  but 
there  is  no  evidence  on  this  point.  It  is  high  time  that  a  stand  should  be 
made  against  the  encroachments  of  manufacturing  Pharmaceutists  on  the 
proper  business  of  the  apothecary.  Apart  from  this  tendency  of  the  book, 
we  have  nothing  against  it.  It  exhibits  great  enterprise  on  the  part  of 
the  manufacturer,  and  contains  much  information  of  a  useful  character. 
Circular  No.  6.  War  Department;  Surgeon  General's  Office,  Wash- 
ington Nov.  1,  1865.  Reports  on  the  extent  and  nature  of  the  ma- 
terials available  for  the  preparation  of  a  medical  and  surgical  history 
of  the  Rebellion.  Printed  for  the  Surgeon  General's  Office,  by  J.  B. 
Lippincott  and  Co.;  Philadelphia,  1865. 
We  are  indebted  to  Surgeon  General  Barnes  for  a  copy  of  this 
"  circular,"  which,  in  common  with  all  things  connected  with  the  war,  is 
on  a  grand  scale.  It  is  in  quarto,  161  pages,  and  consists  of  a  series  of 
reports  from  medical  officers  on  the  materials  and  their  extent  and  nature, 
available  for  the  preparation  of  a  medical  and  surgical  history  of  the  warT 
and  drawn  up  under  the  supervision  and  direction  of  Surgeon  J.  J.  Wood- 
ward of  the  Surgeon  General's  Office.  The  mass  of  materials  appears  to 
be  very  large,  and  the  records,  in  connection  with  the  immense  museum  of 
pathological  specimens,  are  of  great  value,  the  result  of  a  systematic 
course  of  collection  and  preservation  that  has  been  going  on  since  July, 
1862,  previous  to  which  time  but  little  attention  was  given  to  the  subject. 
It  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  proposed  history  will  include  a  full  account 
