because they were prescribed by physicians, or used in domestic practice, either entered under their own headings, or as "allied drugs" under those of more important substances. With these descriptions was given such information about the botanical character of plants yielding drugs, the external and structural characteristics, and the modes of preparation of drugs, their chemical properties, and their physiological action as determined by experiment, as seemed appropriate to the purposes of the work. The present edition may be regarded as embodying the pharmacopœias of the four chief civilized nations. Those of the United States and Germany appeared at the close of 1882, and formed the basis' of the revision. The French Codex was published after the work was prepared for the press, but in time to admit of its incorporation. The British Pharmacopœia has not been revised since 1867. Many of the newer statements have been tested and corrected by special experiments. A large number of extra-pharmacopœial medicines have been added to those in previous editions. Numerous historical notes have been added. The descriptions have been condensed or extended as occasion seemed to require, and microscopical structure has been more fully described and illustrated. While the most recent views of the physiological action, so far as it explains the curative effects of medicines, have been given, all generalizations have been kept subordinate to the practical character of the work. The General Index contains more than 3,700 more references than that of the second edition, and the Index of Therapeutics nearly 1,600 new references. The references to authorities in the therapeutical portion of the work have been extended.
Occult Science in India and among the Ancients, with an Account of their Mystic Initiations, and the History of Spiritism. By Louis Jacolliot. Translated by Willard L. Felt. New York: John W. Lovell Company. Pp. 275.
It may be well to say, in view of the manner in which the title has been used by a certain sect, that this is apparently a real historical study and an account of phenomena which, whatever may be their character, exist and have not been explained. The author is Chief-Justice of Chantlemagore, in the French East Indies, and of Tahiti, who has, during long residence in India, given considerable attention to investigations of the subject, and to observations of the practices of those who have been initiated into the sect of the Pitris, or ancestral shades. The book, he declares, is neither a doctrinal one nor a work of criticism. He does not feel himself called upon to decide either for or against the belief in spirits, either meditating or inspiring, which was held by those who had been initiated in the temples of antiquity, and which is the keystone of the philosophical and religious instruction of the Brahmans; therefore he regards himself as the better able to write its history. He assumes to give "the words themselves," and set forth things as they actually were; to interpret and explain the philosophical compendium of the Hindoo spiritists; to tell what he saw with his own eyes, and faithfully record such explanations as he received from the Brahmans. He pays attention to the phenomena which the fakirs produce at will, which are variously regarded, but concerning which he remarks that "the facts which are simply magnetic are indisputable, extraordinary as they may seem. As to the facts which are purely spiritual, we were only able to explain those in which we participated, either as actor or spectator, upon the hypothesis that we were the victims of hallucination, unless we are willing to admit that there was an occult intervention."
The Sanitary Engineer. Conducted by Henry C. Meyer. Volume X. June to November, 1884. 140 William Street, New York. Pp. 612. Price, $4 a year.
The "Sanitary Engineer" is a journal of civil and sanitary engineering and public and private hygiene, and gives particular attention to plumbing and the construction and arrangement of houses, with reference to sanitary conditions. The present volume contains many valuable papers; among them those relating to the International Health Exhibition, to describing and illustrating the plumbing, heating, ventilating and lighting of notable buildings, to steam-fitting and steam-heating, and the reports of various hygienic conventions.
