574 
EDITORIAL. 
An  Introduction  to  Practical  Pharmacy,  designed  as  a  Text-book  for  the 
Student,  and  as  a  guide  to  the  Physician  and  Pharmaceutist,  with  many 
formulae  and  numerous  illustrations.     By  Edward  Pakrish.  Philadel- 
phia :  Blanchard  &  Lea,  pp.  (about)  500  octavo.  1855. 
Since  the  publication  of  the  American  edition  of  Mohr  and  P^edwood's 
Practical  Pharmacy,  no  special  work  has  appeared  on  this  subject  in  the 
English  language.  The  announcement,  therefore,  that  a  new  treatise  on 
Practical  Pharmacy  is  about  to  issue  from  the  American  press,  is  calculated 
to  attract  the  attention  of  pharmaceutists  and  lead  them  to  inquire  into  its 
character  and  scope.  Although  not  yet  published,  an  opportunity  has  been 
afforded  us  to  examine  a  large  portion  of  the  work  in  sheets,  and  we  are 
able  to  give  an  outline  of  its  contents  for  the  information  of  our  readers. 
It  is  known  to  many  that  the  author  has  for  some  years  past  been  engaged 
as  a  teacher  of  Practical  Pharmacy  (both  by  lectures  and  practical  instruc- 
tion) to  medical  students,  and,  like  all  who  have  been  thus  engaged,  he  has 
felt  the  want  of  a  text-book,  as  an  aid  to  his  pupils.  The  book  before  us 
was  commenced  with  a  view  to  satisfy  this  want,  but  ,  in  its  progress,  the 
author  determined  to  enlarge  on  his  original  plan,  so  as,  without  claiming 
for  it  the  fulness  of  a  handbook  of  Pharmacy,  to  render  it  very  useful  to 
the  strictly  pharmaceutical  student  by  its  systematic  arrangement,  as  well 
as  to  pharmaceutists  in  general,  by  the  body  of  valuable  information  in- 
troduced from  the  journals  and  other  sources  in  reference  to  new  prepara- 
tions. 
The  book  is  in  five  parts :  the  first  is  preliminary,  and  relates  to  the  fur- 
niture of  the  shop  and  the  country  physicians'  office,  to  weights,  measures 
and  specific  gravity,  and  to  a  notice  of  the  Pharmacopoeia. 
The  second  part  treats  of  Galenical  Pharmacy  in  fourteen  chapters,  em- 
bracing the  collection  and  dessication  of  plants,  the  processes  of  pulveriza- 
tion solution,  filtration,  maceration,  infusion  and  percolation.  The  various 
liquid  preparations  made  by  these  processes  are  considered  in  classes,  as 
tinctures,  wines,  vinegars,  infusions,  decoctions,  etc.  In  order  to  condense 
as  much  as  possible,  the  author  brings  forward  the  officinal  preparations  in 
tabular  form,  giving  the  proportions,  prominent  medical  properties,  and 
doses.  This  is  effected  by  dividing  them  into  classes  based  on  the  proportion 
of  the  substances  to  the  menstruum  ;  or  the  nature  of  the  menstruum. 
Formula  for  the  more  important  miofficinal  tinctures  are  then  brought  for- 
ward with  special  remarks.  This  plan  is  followed  throughout  the  work, 
with  some  exceptions  ;  the  author  relying  on  the  general  directions  given 
under  the  head  of  each  class  of  medicines,  and  the  manipulations  described 
under  each  general  process,  as  sufficient  to  enable  the  student  to  understand 
the  tabulated  formulas. 
The  apparatus  for  generating  heat,  and  the  modes  of  applying  it,are  con- 
sidered as  a  preliminary  to  the  process  of  evaporation,  and  the  preparation 
