352 
Book  Reviews. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\       July,  1909. 
BOOK  REVIEWS. 
ArbEITEN    AUS    DEM    PHARM  AZEUTISCHEN    InSTITUT   DER  UnJ- 
VERSitat,  Berlin.  Herausgegeben  von  Dr.  H.  Thorns.  Vols.  4 
and  5,  Berlin,  1907  and  1908. 
These  two,  large  8vo  volumes  of  340  pages  respectively  contain 
an  account  of  the  work  done  in  the  Pharmaceutical  Institute  of  the 
University  of  Berlin.  Unfortunately  for  American  pharmacy,  and 
not  to  the  credit  of  American  pharmacists,  it  must  be  said  that 
these  annuals,  and  the  work  that  is  recorded  in  them,  are  as  yet 
comparatively  unknown  in  this  country,  and  the  precedent  that  is 
being  established,  in  Germany,  for  pharmaceutical  schools  and 
pharmaceutical  associations  has,  as  yet,  not  been  followed  by  a  single 
institution  in  this  country.  It  is  doubtful  indeed  if  any  appreciable 
number  of  even  the  teachers  in  schools  and  colleges  of  pharmacy 
in  this  country  know  of  the  existence  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Insti- 
tute of  Berlin,  to  say  nothing  of  their  having  any  definite  knowledge 
of  the  work  that  is  being  done  by  the  teachers,  scientists,  and  inves- 
tigators that  are  taking  such  an  active  part  in  the  various  activities 
of  that  institute. 
The  Pharmaceutical  Institute  of  the  University  of  Berlin,  essen- 
tially a  pharmaceutical  school,  was  opened  on  the  27th  of  October, 
1902,  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  H.  Thorns.  The  attendance  of 
students  during  the  semester  1902-1903  was  101,  and  during  the 
corresponding  semester  of  1905- 1906  the  recorded  attendance 
reached  212. 
In  addition  to  being  a  school  for  students,  the  institute  has  also 
undertaken  original  investigations  in  a  number  of  branches  relating 
to  pharmacy. 
Perhaps  the  work  that  is  of  more  direct  interest  to  pharmacists, 
certainly  the  work  that  has  proven  itself  to  be  of  most  immediate 
importance,  is  the  investigations  undertaken  in  1903,  at  the  instiga- 
tion and  with  the  pecuniary  assistance  of  the  German  Society  of 
Apothecaries,  bearing  on  the  composition  and  testing  of  new  medici- 
nal compounds,  pharmaceutical  specialties,  and  secret  remedies. 
The  reports  of  the  work  done  in  this  connection  are  published  from 
time  to  time  in  the  "  Apotheker  Zeitung  Berlin,"  and  many,  if  not 
all,  are  subsequently  reprinted  in  the  annual  reports  of  the  institute, 
of  which,  up  to  the  present  time,  five  volumes  have  been  published. 
This  particular  branch  of  the  work  of  the  institute  early  assumed 
