(1) Grundriss der Pharmakochemie (2) Southall's Organic Materia Medica A Handbook treating of the more important of the Animal and Vegetable Drugs made use of in Medicine, including the whole of those contained in the British Pharmacopoeia

Abstract

(1) DURING the past quarter of a century a steadily increasing amount of attention has been devoted to the study of crude drugs. The investigations of these have proceeded largely upon botanical lines, many researches having been published on the morphology and anatomy of vegetable drugs and the microscopical characters of their powders. The authors of modern text-books of pharmacognosy have, in most instances, confined themselves almost entirely to dealing with their subject from this point of view, and have been very niggardly in the treatment of the history, commerce, and chemistry of drugs. Great strides have, however, been made in the chemical investigation of the constituents of vegetable as well as animal drugs. The constitution of many has been satisfactorily elucidated, and not a few have been synthetically prepared. The literature of these investigations is, unfortunately, scattered in various journals and special publications, and every teacher of pharmacognosy will have experienced the difficulty of, as well as the necessity for, collecting such information, notwithstanding the useful works of Brühl, Pictet, van Rijn, Schmidt, Dekker, and others.

(1) Grundriss der Pharmakochemie.

By Dr. O. A. Oesterle. Pp. xii + 562. (Berlin: Gebr. Borntraeger, 1909.) Price 17.50 marks.

(2) Southall's Organic Materia Medica. A Handbook treating of the more important of the Animal and Vegetable Drugs made use of in Medicine, including the whole of those contained in the British Pharmacopoeia.

By J. Barclay. Seventh edition. Revised and enlarged by E. W. Mann. Pp. xx + 376. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1909.) Price 7s. 6d. net.