59« 
Reviews. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I   December,  1901. 
lot,  etc.,  as  revealed  to  them  by  their  senses  of  sight  and  touch. 
Experience  gives  them  skill  to  form  an  approximately  correct  esti- 
mate of  the  value  of  a  sample,  especially  of  its  adaptability  to 
any  particular  use  to  which  they  may  wish  to  put  it.  It  is  very 
much  like  buying  fruit — you  look  at  it,  feel  it  and  taste  of  it,  and 
thus  judge  of  its  condition.  If  it  suits  your  desires,  your  tastes 
and  your  pocket-book,  you  buy  it."1 
There  are  likewise  in  drugs  certain  qualities  which  are  not  revealed 
either  by  the  microscope  or  the  test-tube,  but  which,  nevertheless, 
are  apparent  to  the  physician  who  employs  the  drug.  An  article  may 
be  nearly  exhausted  of  its  active  constituents  and  yet  pass  as  the 
genuine  so  far  as  the  microscope  alone  will  demonstrate.  One  sample 
of  drug  may  assay  as  much  as  another,  and  yet  not  do  the  work 
that  is  intended  by  the  physician.  So  far  as  the  microscopical  and 
chemical  tests  are  concerned,  there  must  always  be  limitations  in 
their  employment.  These  can  only  complement  the  tests  which 
have  always  been  employed,  and  for  which  no  reason  can  be  as- 
signed for  the  results  that  they  give.  They  who  succeed  in  putting 
out  good  preparations  know  in  more  ways  than  one  how  to  pro- 
nounce on  the  value  of  a  drug,  and  they  see  to  it  that  no  stone  is 
left  unturned  (from  the  growing  of  the  plant  yielding  the  drug  till 
its  actual  preparation,  conservation  and  employment  by  the  physi- 
cian) to  insure  its  doing  the  work  intended  by  the  physician.  The 
true  analyst  is  not  only  a  microscopist,  a  chemist,  a  biologist,  but  a 
tester  and  taster,  one  who  uses  his  five  senses  with  an  abundance 
of  common  sense,  backed  by  a  good  training.  The  future  has 
much  in  store  for  the  specialist  who  is  an  all-round  man,  with  all 
his  senses  developed,  and  who  tastes  and  feels  and  sees  as  well  as 
uses  the  microscope  and  test-tube. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRPAHICAL  NOTICES. 
A  Text-book  of  Pharmacology. — Including  Therapeutics,  Materia 
Medica,  Pharmacy,  Prescription-writing,  Toxicology,  etc.  By  Torald 
Sollmann,  M.D.  Royal  octavo  volume  of  880  pages,  fully  illus- 
trated. Philadelphia  and  London:  W.  B.  Saunders  &  Company, 
1901.    Cloth,  #3.75  net. 
1  Extract  from  a  letter  from  Wm.  B.  Marshall,  Curator  of  the  Philadelphia 
Commercial  Museum,  July  13,  1899. 
