made in the present edition, to bring the theoretical portion into harmony with modern views; but its treatment of chemical theory, although good, is not the strongest feature of the work. Its first claim to consideration, and an important one, is the great number of simple illustrative experiments that it pictures and describes. There is a great profusion of cuts representing apparatus and manipulations, which will be most serviceable to lecturers and chemical workers. Another point of special interest in the work is the prominence it gives to the subject of manufacturing processes. The principles involved in the most important of these are very clearly and fully explained. Professor Bloxam has been long associated with the Government military establishment at Woolwich, and has made many investigations into the properties of explosives. The student will accordingly find that more than usual attention is given to the chemistry of the various substances employed in warlike stores.
Pharmacographia: A History of the Principal Drugs of Vegetable Origin met with in Great Britain and British India. By Friedrich Flückiger, Ph. D., Professor in the University of Strasburg, and Dan. Hanbury, F. R. S. Second edition. London: Macmillan & Co. (22 Bond Street, New York). 1879. 8vo, pp. 803. Price, $5.
The second edition of this master-work, first published in 1874 and now revised by the only surviving author, Professor Flückiger, has been long looked for, and is received everywhere with due appreciation. Exceeding the first edition by one hundred pages, it is identical with it in scope and arrangement. The drugs are classified according to their botanical origin, and the natural orders arranged in accordance with the system of De Candolle. The Latin name, with the principal synonyms of each drug, is followed by their English, German, and French names. The main sections of each article treated are: "Botanical Origin," "History," "Collection," "Description," "Microscopic Structure," "Chemical Composition," "Production and Commerce," "Uses, Adulterations, and Substitutes."
The section "Botanical Origin" enumerates the recognized botanical name, together with the synonyms, the habit, and locality of the plant yielding the drug; all strictly botanical descriptions are, very properly, almost entirely excluded. The section "History" is particularly unique and interesting; it gives an historical account of each drug from the time when it was first used, traces its employment by different nations, its influence upon commerce, its value at different periods, cultivation, etc. This is followed by an account of the "Collection" of the drug, and its manufacture for the market, in all such cases where this information is likely to explain its physical properties, which are described under the section "Description," and followed by "Microscopical Structure." In the section "Chemical Composition" the views of different investigators have been carefully sifted, and the results of the most recent researches given. Interesting and valuable information and statistics are found in the division "Production, Cultivation, and Commerce." The section "Adulteration and Substitutes" is brief, since the surest way to detect adulterations, of whatever kind, is to be found in a sufficient familiarity with the leading characteristics of the pure article.
The value of all this information is much enhanced and made specially attractive and interesting by copious reference to original sources, covering a wide and varied scope of both old and recent literature.
If there is any desideratum which the very value of the work suggests, it is the want of illustrations in the sections of "Description" and "Microscopical Structure," for which the authors thus far refer to several standard works, mainly German ones, and which desideratum has been well met in the French translation of the work by Professor de Lanessau, which contains more than three hundred well-executed cuts.
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. By John Caird, D. D. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 358. Price, $3.
A disquisition upon this subject by the Principal of Glasgow University is sure to have a wide welcome. Dr. Caird is well known as one of the clearest and soundest thinkers of the conservative school of theology. In calm, philosophic temper, in liberality of thought, and in acuteness and force of reasoning, this work is far above
