Hygiene.
Text Book of Hygiene.—G. H. Rohe. Philadelphia: F. A. Davis Co.
A comprehensive treatise on the principles and practice of preventive medicine from an American standpoint.
Materia Medica.
Organic Materia Medica and Pharmacognosy. Illustrated. By Prof. L. E. Sayre: P. Blakiston & Co., Philadelphia.
In these days of degenerate rivalry among educational institutions, and particularly among the different classes of technical schools, when their officers are wont to prefer the very poorest of text-books, written by one of their own number, for the best of them should it emanate from a rival institution, we have become accustomed to looking upon publications of this sort as serving merely, like an electoral vote, to count one among the general collection. It can scarcely be expected that text-books written from such standpoints and with such motives can have much permanent value, and the future educational historian will doubtless look with amazement upon the trash of this character which has been brought to light during the present era. In the midst of this wearisome train of events it is refreshing to have presented to us a new text-book, whose publication constitutes, as to its main part, a real event in the history of pharmaceutical education.
Prof. Sayre’s work on Pharmacognosy has a real reason for existence in its scope, arrangement and execution. It is new and original, and will stand by itself as a prominent American text-book. If it possesses glaring and in some respects fatal defects, it at the same time presents the merit of ingenuity in construction as well as in the selection of subject matter, and it cannot fail to become a much-used reference book, not only by the pharmaceutical profession for whom it is intended but by physicians as well. It is perhaps unfortunate that so many individuals, and nearly all of them students, should have been given a free hand in the working out of the various departments, and that their products have not been in all cases perfectly harmonized by the master. It is also unfortunate that so many statements should have been taken, without investigation, from other authors. A brief scrutiny of the pages will suffice to reveal this composite origin, even if one does not read the acknowledgments of the author in his preface. Doubtless Prof. Sayre, while he has not greatly interfered with the individuality of presentation of these different subjects, has taken pains to verify the accuracy of the facts and conclusions recorded. Should such prove upon closer investigation to be the case, the defect referred to must doubtless be considered as one of style merely.
The appearance of an American work on Pharmacognosy is of so much importance that it is not inappropriate that it be analyzed with some degree of fulness. The book consists of two parts with three appendices. Part 1 is on “Pharmacal Botany,” while part 2 is upon “Organic Materia Medica and Pharmacognosy.” It is impossible to review this work fairly in the interest of the public as well as of the author without recording the opinion that the eighty-two pages comprising Part 1 should never have been published, if we regard either the reputation of the author or the welfare of students of pharmacy.
Our American text-books on Pharmaceutical Botany, (not “Pharmacal Botany,” as the author unhappily calls it, which would mean the Botany of the Pharmacy, or of the place in which pharmaceutics are practiced,) bears no evidence that any author has yet comprehended the needs of pharmaceutical students in this direction, or has adjusted his instruction so as to accomplish the object for which it was devised. The idea invariably indicated by the writings, even if not intended by the writers, is that as the application of botanical knowledge to the practice of the pharmacy is limited, its teachings may therefore be superficial, indefinite and vague. The true idea it seems to us is, that it should be curtailed and limited only as to the portions of the field covered; but these requisite portions should be taught with a fulness of illustration, a clearness of presentation and a simplicity of style, all the more marked because the student is deprived of the enlightening effect contributed in other cases by those portions which are here necessarily omitted.
As a synopsis, or summary of knowledge, intended to guide the teacher instructed in the subject, these eighty-two pages will answer fairly well; but to enable a student who is proceeding de novo to gain a knowledge of structural botany for the purposes of pharmacognosy, we can see nothing but failure. Herein we criticise the book, not specifically the author. Publishers’ books are not always authors’ books. It is doubtful if any publisher can be found willing to publish as a business enterprise, a perfect text-book of Botany for pharmaceutical students.