AMERICAN  PHARMACEUTICAL  ASSOCIATION. 
491 
aconitum,  alcohol,  aloes  and  ammonia.  The  alphabetical  arrangement  of 
the  Dispensatory  is  one  of  its  advantages  as  a  book  of  reference  in  the  course 
of  business,  but  to  the  student,  without  a  syllabus  to  guide  him,  it  is  the 
source  of  continued  annoyance  and  loss  of  time.  Hence  in  view  of  the  de- 
finition of  our  great  lexicographer,  the  United  States  Dispensatory,  in  its 
arrangement,  can  hardly  be  considered  a  text  book  for  the  pharmaceutical 
student,  unaided  by  instruction.  And  yet  it  is  his  main  dependence,  and 
intrinsically  merits  all  the  eulogiums  that  it  has  received.  As  a  com- 
pendium of  materia  medica  and  pharmacy  for  the  use  of  the  physician  and 
apothecary,  the  United  States  Dispensatory  is  so  generally  reliable,  com- 
prehensive, and  perspicuous,  that  no  work  of  the  kind  in  the  English  lan- 
guage approaches  it  in  usefulness.  This  has  mainly  arisen  from  the  authors' 
just  appreciation  of  the  wants  of  the  two  classes  for  whom  it  was  written. 
"What  the  home  student  wants  to  aid  him  is  a  syllabus,  to  be  used  in  con- 
nection with  the  Dispensatory,  as  a  guide  book  for  study,  which  will  take 
the  place  of  the  lecturer,  in  so  far  as  such  a  substitute  can  do  it,  and  it  is 
worthy  of  consideration  whether  a  suitable  committee  could  not  prepare 
such  a  work,  within  moderate  limits,  that  would  prove  of  great  service  to 
apprentices  and  assistants,  and  be  eminently  creditable  to  the  Association, 
under  whose  auspices  it  might  be  published.  It  would  be  within  the  scope 
of  such  a  work  to  make  constant  references  to  the  authors  most  advantage- 
ously to  be  consulted  in  the  progress  of  study,  without  loading  it  with 
quotations,  and  so  enable  the  student  to  avail  himself  of  the  best  informa- 
tion at  the  appropriate  moment  without  waste  of  time. 
Next  to  the  United  States  Dispensatory  we  would  place  the  great  work 
of  Pereira.  As  an  encyclopedia  of  materia  medica,  and  especially  in  the 
beautiful  arrangement  in  groups  according  to  the  natural  system  of  botany, 
of  the  large  part  pertaining  to  the  vegetable  kingdom,  it  is  admirably  suited 
to  the  advanced  student.  Besides,  as  the  preparations  of  each  drug  are 
described  in  connection  with  it,  the  student  also  pursues  the  study  of  materia 
medica  and  pharmacy  together,  which  is  the  true  course  when  not  follow- 
ing separate  lecturers.  The  pharmaceutical  part  of  Pereira's  work,  how- 
ever, is  not  so  well  suited  as  that  of  the  United  States  Dispensatory  as  a 
guide  to  the  American  student,  as  the  latter  is  strictly  conformed  in  its 
nomenclature  to  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia. 
Before  materia  medica  and  pharmacy,  as  exhibited  in  the  Dispensatories, 
can  be  properly  understood,  the  student  must  acquaint  himself  with  the 
elements  of  chemistry  and  botany  and  with  pharmaceutical  manipulation. 
It  might  at  first  thought  be  considered  that  the  manipulations  of  pharmacy 
are  best  learned  in  the  shop  and  laboratory ;  but  this  is  true  only  of  those 
establishments  wherein  manipulations  are  carried  on  to  such  an  extent  as 
to  afford  an  opportunity  to  the  apprentices  or  assistants  to  become  familiar 
with  them,  and  when  so  learned  they  are  most  effectually  acquired.  Un- 
fortunately a  very  large  number  of  the  pharmaceutists  throughout  this 
country  make  so  few  of  the  nicer  chemical  and  pharmaceutical  preparations, 
