384 
EDITORIAL. 
have  come  to  us  from  England,  apparently  more  with  a  view  to  make  money 
than  for  a  real  need  of  such  helps,  which  already  abound.  In  France  formu- 
laries are  quite  numerous,  and  Majondie's,  long  since  translated,  is  well 
known  to  the  English  reader.  Of  our  own  country,  we  have  Ellis's  and 
Griffith's  Universal  Formulary,  which  are  excellent  works  of  their  kind, 
generally  well  known  to  American  physicians,  and  the  latter  is  very  com- 
prehensive. Then,  of  the  class  under  consideration,  we  have  "  The  Pre- 
server's Pharmacopoeia,"  "  Beasley's  Prescription  Book,"  and  others  that 
we  have  not  seen.  All  of  these  last  works,  in  common  with  that  now  be- 
fore us,  have  their  merits,  and  prove  more  or  less  useful  to  the  practitioner, 
but  they  embody  so  many  receipes  based  on  preparations  not  kept  in  the 
United  (States,  that  they  tend  to  complicate  the  subject,  and  sometimes  to 
mislead  the  physician  in  reference  to  preparations  he  is  using ;  not  to 
speak  of  the  confusion  of  nomenclature  which  necessarily  arises. 
Preliminary  to  the  Formulary  is  (1)  an  account  of  the  treatment  to  be 
pursued  in  accidents,  as  wounds  of  different  kinds,  burns,  sprains,  fractures, 
dislocations,  foreign  substances  in  the  eye,  ear  or  throat,  fainting,  sun- 
stroke, convulsions,  etc.  (2)  Of  Poisons  and  treatment.  (3)  An  abstract 
of  the  three  British  and  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeias.  (4)  An  abstract  of 
Majendie's  Formulary.  (5)  Artificial  mineral  waters,  and  (6)  rules  for 
prescribing. 
We  have  not  had  time  to  examine  the  accuracy  of  the  quantity  marks 
which  are  used  throughout  the  book,  nor  the  character  of  the  formulae  in  a 
pharmaceutical  point  of  view,  further  than  to  observe,  that  no  directions 
are  given  to  the  dispenser — the  modus  prwparandi  being  left,  as  in  ordinary 
prescriptions,  to  his  judgment. 
On  the  Causes  and  Curative  Treatment  of  Sterility,  with  a  preliminary  state- 
ment of  the  Physiology  of  Generation.  By  Augustus  K.  Gardner,  A.  M., 
M.  D.,  Fellow  of  the'  N.  York  Academy  of  Medicine,  &c,  &c.  New  York: 
Dewitt  &  Davenport,  1856.    Pp.  170.  Octavo.  Illustrated. 
Vierteljahresschrift  fur  prdktische  Pharmacie,  von  Dr.  Wittstein,  V. 
Band.  1  and  2  heft,  1856,  in  exchange  for  the  American  Journal  of 
Pharmacy  has  been  received. 
