526 
Reviews,  etc. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Nov.  1875. 
States  in  "  Poggendorf's  Annalen,"  xxvii  p.  118,  that  small  pieces  of  phosphorus 
thrown  into  bromine  cause  dangerous  explosions.  The  violence  of  the  reaction  of 
the  two  elements  upon  each  other  was  doubtless  the  cause  of  the  accident  above 
referred  to,  and  on  account  of  this  violence  the  process,  in  the  form  in  which  it  was 
first  recommended,  appears  to  be  too  dangerous  for  general  adoption,  since  a  slight 
oversight  in  the  addition  of  the  bromine  mus^t  be  considered  as  fraught  with  danger- 
ous consequences. 
Much  more  promising  appears  to  be  a  modification  which  Professor  Markoe  has 
since  suggested  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Pile,  and  according  to  which  i  2  ounces  each  of 
water  and  nitric  acid  sp.  gr.  i"42  are  mixed,  then  4  cubic  centimetres  of  bromine 
added  and  shaken  until  it  is  dissolved  j  10  grains  of  iodine  are  now  added  and  after- 
wards two  ounces  of  phosphorus;  the  reaction  commenced  at  once,  and  at  the  end  ot 
an  hour  waa  sufficiently  brisk  to  cause  the  escape  of  bromine  vapors.  The  flask  was 
now  placed  into  cool  water  (of  55°  F.),  and  without  further  precaution  the  reaction 
proceeded  until  the  phosphorus  was  dissolved,  which  was  accomplished  in  24  hours. 
It  is  possible,  however,  that  even  this  process  may  not  be  without  danger,  since, 
according  to  the  experiments  of  Personne,  made  in  1864  ("  Bull,  de  la  Soc.  Chim.,'* 
2  sei.,  vol.  i,  p.  163),  not  inconsiderable  quantities  of  ammonia  are  formed  on  dis-- 
solving  phosphorus  in  concentrated  nitric  acid  or  in  this  acid  previously  diluted  with 
two  volumes  of  water.  Bromine,  like  iodine  and  chlorine,  when  in  contact  with 
ammonia  or  its  compounds,  are  apt  to  produce  compounds  with  nitrogen  which  ar^ 
dangerously  explosive  under  various  circumstances,  and  it  seems,  therefore,  that 
further  critical  experiments  are  needed  before  this  promising  process  can  be  recom- 
mended for  general  adoption. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
On  Poisons  in  Relation  to  Medical  Jurisprudence  and  Medicine.  By  Alfred  Swaine 
Taylor,  M.D.,  F.R.S  ,  &c.  Third  American,  from  the  third  thoroughly  revised 
English  edition.  With  104  illustrations.  Philadelphia:  Henry  C.  Lea,  1875. 
Large  8vo,  pp.  788. 
This  work  has  been  favorably  known  and  esteemed  as  an  authority  for  so  long 
a  time  that  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  mention  it  now  in  commendable  terms.  That 
it  must  be  almost  regarded  in  the  light  of  a  new  book,  has  been  caused  by  the  rapid 
progress  of  science  and  the  numerous  investigations  with  deleterious  substances  since 
the  appearance  of  the  previous  edition.  That  the  author  has  endeavored  to  incor- 
porate in  this  volume  the  latest  results  obtained  by  science,  maybe  taken  for  granted  ; 
still  some  facts  have  escaped  the  author's  notice.  Among  them  we  may  mention, 
that  he  omits  the  statement  that  colchicia  forms  definite  compounds  with  bases,  and  is 
readily  converted  by  acids  into  colchicein  ;  that  he  still  enumerates  veratria  as  one  of 
the  constituents  of  Veratrum  album,  and  that  he  refers  the  Levant  wormseed  to  Ar- 
temisia santonica. 
In  the  first  twenty-two  chapters  the  author  treats  of  poisons  in  general,  theii 
