for the special benefit of pharmaceutical and medical students space is given to all chemicals mentioned in the "United States Pharmacopœia." The fifth part deals with qualitative analysis, including also a chapter giving the principal methods for volumetric determinations. Organic chemistry occupies a little over one fourth of the volume, and in this department special prominence is given to those substances most important in medicine and pharmacy. In the closing part physiological chemistry is treated, including a consideration of the chemical changes which take place in animals and plants, and of the chemical composition of animal fluids and tissues, with full directions for testing urine. A notable feature of the book is seven plates showing the colors of fifty-six precipitates and liquids, which beginners often have difficulty in becoming familiar with. There are also forty-four cuts representing apparatus.
A Synopsis of the Medical Botany of the United States. By J. M. G. Carter, M. D., Ph. D. St. Louis: George H. Field. Pp. 176. Price, $2.
Dr. Carter has accomplished a laborious service for the physicians of the United States. The book consists of a list of the species under each genus which are known to be useful in medicine, giving their medicinal properties, and telling what parts of the plant are used, and the dose. The medicinal plants of the United States embrace about 140 orders, 620 genera, and more than 1,300 species and varieties. The botanical arrangement is chiefly that of Dr. Asa Gray. The names of introduced species are distinguished by small capitals, and the habitat of rare plants is given. The volume is supplied with a table of orders, and indexes of generic names and of common names of plants, and an index of diseases.
The Journal of Physiology, Vol. IX, Nos. 2 and 3 (Cambridge (England) Scientific Instrument Company) contains eight papers giving the results of laboratory investigations. The first is "On the Physiology of the Salivary Secretion," by J. N. Langley, of Cambridge, and records experiments made to determine whether the "trophic" and "anabolic" fibers of the secretory nerves are paralyzed by atropine at the same time as the "secretory" fibers. This is followed by a paper on "The Physiological Action of Borneol," by Ralph Stockman, M. D., of Edinburgh, and "A Note on the Cause of the Failure of very Rapid Electrical Stimulation to produce Tetanus in Muscle," by Henry Sewall, of Ann Arbor, Mich. "An Experimental Investigation of Strychnine-Poisoning" is contributed by Robert W. Lovett, M. D., of Boston, who concludes that the spinal cord, upon which strychnine exercises peculiar power, takes up more of the drug than the other organs; but whether or not it is more susceptible to the drug than the other organs we have no means of ascertaining. The next paper is "On the Circumstances which modify the Action of Caffeine and Theine upon Voluntary Muscle," by T. Lauder Brunton and J. Theodore Cash; this is followed by a report of an investigation "On the Electrical Organ of the Skate," by J. Burdon-Sanderson and Francis Gotch. The remaining papers are "On the Rhythm of the Mammalian Heart," by John A. McWilliam, M. D., of Aberdeen, illustrated by plates of tracings; and "Further Researches on the Apparent Change produced by Stimulation in the Polarization of Nerve," by George N. Stewart, of Manchester.
Prof. E. D. Cope read before the American Philosophical Society in January last a paper entitled Synopsis of the Vertebrate Fauna of the Puerco Series. The Puerco formation rests on the Laramie in northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado, and was discovered by Prof. Cope in 1874, and vertebrate remains were found in it by Mr. David Baldwin in 1880. One hundred and six vertebrate species have been found so far, which differ so much from the fauna which preceded and followed them, as to show that this formation represents an immense interval that had not been previously suspected. These species are described in the present paper, and the descriptions are illustrated by two plates, and by cuts showing dentition.
University Studies is the name of a periodical published by the University of Nebraska, at Lincoln, the first number of which, dated July, 1888, is before us. The price of a single number is $1; yearly subscription, $3. There is no announcement of the purpose or times of publication of the journal
