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strength like the authors of the British Homœopathic Pharmacopoeia, but they give the proportions of drug-power in each of the differently prepared tinctures, and the proportion of drops of this to alcohol to make the 1st dilution, so that it comes to pretty much the same thing, and is certainly simpler than the attempted uniformity of the British Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia. Directions are next given for aqueous solutions (two kinds) and alcoholic solutions (two strengths). Then come triturations of dry medicinal substances, triturations of liquid substances (like petroleum), triturations of fresh vegetable and animal substances. Under each of these classes, which are separately numbered, the mode of converting the primary proportion into centesimal and decimal potencies is described. In making triturations of metals, the authors prefer the precipitated metal to the foil or filings employed by Hahnemann, and this we think is an improvement, advised but not carried out in the British Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia.

The second part is devoted to Special Homœopathic Pharmaceutics. The substances treated of are very numerous, and are arranged alphabetically. There are many not to be found even in the voluminous Encyclopædia of Allen. All are treated in the same methodical manner. The plants are thus treated: 1, Synonyms; 2, Nat. Order; 3, Common names; 4, Description; 5, Preparation; 6, Drug-power of mother-tincture; 7, Indication of the Class (see above) according to which dilutions are to be prepared. The chemical substances are thus treated : 1, Present names; 2, Formula; 3, Origin and formation; 4, Preparation; 5, Properties; 6, Tests; 7, Preparation for Homœopathic use; 8, Amount of drug-power of mother-tincture; 9, Indication of Class according to which dilutions are to be made. Other substances are treated with equal fulness and with modifications demanded by their nature. From a more than cursory examination we are able to say that this portion of the work is executed with great ability and care. The chief fault that we have to find with the work is that it is overloaded with out-ofthe-way and seldom or never used substances, which for all

the reader can see are considered as genuine medicines, and are as carefully treated of as our best known polychrists. We do not, it is true, find those recherché medicines of the so-called Hahnemannians, Sol, Luna, Nix, Lac caninum, Lac defloratum, &c, but we have " Saccharum album" figuring as a medicine, and " Adamas " (diamond), for the trituration of which we are recommended to use sugar of milk crystallised into the form of a pestle (spelt "pestal") and mortar. We rather think the pestle and mortar would have the worst of it in the operation. The authors do not follow the example of the compilers of the British Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia, and mention where the provings of the various medicines are to be found, and as many of those they include in their pharmaceutics are not to be found in Allen, we are at a loss to know where a proving of diamond is recorded. We rather suspect they have not limited their Thesaurus Medicaminum to proved drugs, for we notice many articles which we are confident have never been proved or indeed used empirically by either the allopathic or homeopathic school. However, it seems ungracious to blame the authors for giving us too much, as we are always free to reject any medicines we please.

In an appendix we have mention made of the so-called "nosodes," or morbid products which have been introduced into homœopathic, or, perhaps we should say, isopathic practice; also the so-called "Eclectic" preparations of medicinal plants which are so much favoured by some practitioners; likewise directions for making cerates, arnica oil, glyceroles, lotions, tincture triturations, and tablet triturates, the two latter convenient forms for dispensing. volume concludes with tables of weights and measures, and a table for converting apothecaries' weights and measures into gram weights.

The

The get-up of the volume is excellent, paper and print being of that superior quality in which the Americans excel all other nations. Comparing it with our own · British Homœopathic Pharmacopoeia, we are bound to say that the information given respecting the medicines and VOL. XLI, NO. CLXIII.-JANUARY, 1883.

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their preparation is much more complete and detailed in the American Pharmacopoeia. We confess to a prejudice in favour of retaining the Hahnemannic methods of making tinctures as the authors of the American work have done, though the attempt to introduce uniformity of the British compilers seems to have a more scientific air, but it has the disadvantage of rendering our pharmaceutics more complicated, and perhaps in the end the result is to furnish us with something-it may be better-but still not exactly the same as that obtained by the original method. It is curious that the authors make no allusion to the labours of the authors of the British Homœopathic Pharmacopoeia, while they allude to Dr. Willmar Schwabe's Pharmacopoeia Polyglotta as the best, though it is decidedly inferior to its British rival.

Doctor Burnett's Essays. New York: Boericke and Tafel.

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THIS is an American reprint of our Dr. Burnett's little books, Ecce Medicus,' 'Natrum muriaticum,' 'Gold,' 'Curability of Cataract,' Diseases of the Veins,' and 'Supersalinity of the Blood,' with the addition of a paper on the Causes of Cataract,' presented by him to the American Homœopathic Ophthalmological and Otological Society. This republication, which we may add is not piratical, but by arrangement with the author, is a tangible testimony to the appreciation of Dr. Burnett's works by our American colleagues, and we heartily congratulate the author on it.

Transactions of the Thirty-fourth Session of the American Institute of Homœopathy. Pittsburg: 1881.

By some oversight we omitted to notice this volume on its publication. We cannot afford space to give a review

of it now, nor is that necessary, as we trust that all who are interested in the development of our art have got the volume. It contains among other valuable articles provings of Papaya vulgaris by Dr. Hale, of Viburnum opulus by Dr. H. E. Allen, and of Caladium seg. by Dr. Cowperthwaite. Curiously enough, the author and Dr. Parsons obtained no symptoms from massive doses of Calad. All the symptoms reported were from dilutions, mostly the 6th decimal. The 30th dilution caused intense and persistent pruritus vulvæ in a lady of 49. We all know that Calad. has long been used in homœopathic practice for the cure of that affection. In the same section Dr. Owens contributes a paper on the mode of drug action in cure, which gave rise to a very funny discussion, chiefly about the soul. The Bureau of Clinical Medicine occupied itself chiefly with a series of papers on the dose. The Bureau of Pædology devoted itself to the consideration of syphilis in infants. In the Bureau of Hygiene Dr. B. James enters fully into the construction of drains and gives a number of illustrations showing how drains should be and how they should not be made. Several other valuable papers were read in this section. In the Department of Obstetrics there is a paper on hæmorrhage, in which the authoress, Dr. Milly Chapman, advises hot water enemata as being the most efficacious remedy. Obstetricians generally seem to be of the same opinion. The gynecologists are chiefly concerned with laceration of the cervix uteri, and three papers are given on that subject by Drs. Ludlam, Comstock, and Allen. The surgical papers are on septicemia, rotary lateral curvature of spine, perineorraphy, stricture of œsophagus, varicocele, fracture of neck of femur, and spinal abscesses. The author of the first-named paper is evidently unacquainted with Dr. Drysdale's observations on Sepsin, which we would recommend to him. The discussion that followed in this section was most interesting and instructive. In the discussion on septicæmia it is noteworthy that many of the surgeons present were able to speak from their own. experience of the disease occurring in their own persons from wounds inflicted during surgical operations. Dr.

Helmuth gave a very instructive account of his suprapubic operation for the removal of stone from the bladder. We observe that a work on the subject from his pen has been since advertised. The Section of Ophthalmology and Otology furnished some useful papers, especially one on the use of Kal. phos. (Schüssler) in suppurative otitis. The Section of Microscopy and Histology and of Anatomy and Physiology were also well furnished with interesting papers. Finally, Dr. Talbot contributed an exhaustive paper on the statistics of homoeopathic institutions and periodicals.

Transactions of the Thirty-fifth Session of the American Institute of Homœopathy, held at Indianapolis, Indiana, June 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 1882. Pittsburg: 1882.

WHILE uncertainty and disappointment are encountered at every period of our transient life, it is refreshing to feel assured that the publication of an annual volume by the American Institute of Homoeopathy is certain, and that we shall never be disappointed in the character of its contents. This, the latest volume of that great association of our transatlantic colleagues, is inferior in no respect to the many volumes that have delighted us in the past, and we can only marvel at the inexhaustible activity of the representatives of homœopathy in the New World.

The wonderful organisation of the institute, whereby the labours of its members are arranged in "bureaux" for every special branch of practical medicine, gives a methodical character to their labours and enables us to see at a glance how rich the institution is in practical cultivators of each separate field of our many-sided art.

This volume is adorned with an excellent portrait engraved on steel of the President of the Institute for this session, our esteemed colleague, Dr. Breyfogle.

On the first page we have Dr. Dowling's definition of a

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