EDITORIAL. 
187 
Professor  of  Practical  Chemistry  to  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of 
Great  Britain,  &c.,  &c.  London  :  John  Van  Yoorst,  1869.  Pp.  624, 
12mo. 
In  March,  1867,  the  first  edition  of  this  work  was  noticed  under  its 
name,  *' An  Introduction  to  Pharmaceutical  Chemistry,"  in  446  pages, 
and  the  reader  is  referred  to  that  notice  for  the  general  character  of  the 
present  volume.  It  speaks  well  for  this  "Chemistry"  that  a  second 
edition  has  been  so  soon  demanded,  and  the  fact  that  its  size  has  in- 
creased from  446  to  624  pages  assures  us  that  this  is  not  a  mere  reprint 
of  the  first  edition.  Little  is  to  be  learned  from  the  author's  preface  of 
the  changes  or  additions,  but  in  looking  the  work  through  the  reader  will 
find  that  many  parts  are  re-written,  others  extended  by  addition,  and  in 
a  few  instances  mere  notices  have  been  expanded  into  chapters,  as,  for 
instance,  the  fatty  oils,  the  resins,  and  the  coloring  principles.  The  chap- 
ters on  alkaloids  and  glucosides  have  been  much  improved,  as  has  that 
on  the  alcohols.  The  chapter  on  weights  and  measures  and  specific 
gravity  has  been  increased,  and  the  metric  weights  strongly  urged  for 
general  use.  The  chapters  on  volumetric  and  gravimetric  analysis  are 
less  changed  than  the  other  parts,  but  the  appendix  of  tables  has  been 
extended  from  eight  to  twenty-three  pages,  including  many  of  great  use 
in  practice. 
Another  feature  of  this  edition  is  that  the  "questions  and  exercises" 
are  placed  immediately  after  the  chapters  to  which  they  refer,  instead  of 
all  together  in  the  Appendix, — a  change  for  the  better  which  the  teacher 
and  student  will  appreciate.  On  the  whole,  it  may  truthfully  be  said  of 
this  edition  that  Dr.  Attfield  has  increased  its  scientific  accuracy,  ex- 
tended its  scope,  and  improved  its  adaptation  as  a  manual  of  practical 
chemistry  for  pharmaceutical  and  medical  laboratory  students. 
Proceedings  of  the  First  Annual  Meeting  of  the  California  P  harmaceutical 
Society,  held  at  San  Francisco,  Oct.  11th,  1869  ;  also  the  Constitution 
and  roll  of  members.  San  Francisco,  1869  ;  pp.  27,  octavo. 
This  pamphlet  presents  a  creditable  expose  of  the  doings  of  this  new 
Society  at  the  first  general  meeting  after  its  organization.  The  chief 
part  is  occupied  by  a  report  of  the  Executive  Committee,  consisting  of 
Messrs.  Calvert,  McBayle,  Burnett,  Miller  and  Steele,  from  which  we 
learn  that  the  number  of  dispensing  drug  stores  in  San  Francisco  city 
and  county  is  eighty-eight,  and  wholesale  stores  five  ;  that  the  importation 
oi foreign  drugs  for  the  year  ending  October,  1869,  was  about  a  million  of 
dollars.  The  following  extract  from  a  communication  to  the  Society  from 
Dr.  Wooster,  U.  S.  Drug  Examiner,  suggests  a  new  topic  :  "  The  Chinese 
import  a  large  amount  of  simples,  and  they  are  much  better  packed  than 
similar  articles  coming  from  Europe.  It  occurs  to  me  that  if  a  committee 
of  American  druggists  should  examine  Chinese  importations,  they  would 
find  many  articles  which  could  be  imported  from  China  at  a  better  mar- 
gin of  profit  than  from  Europe." 
