Medical Practitioners’ and Students’ Library, No. 5. The
American Medical Formulary : based upon the United States
and British Pharmacopoeias. Including also numerous standard
formulce, derived from American and European authorities.
Together with the medical properties and uses of Medicines ;
Poisons, their antidotes, tests, fyc. ; designed for the medical
and pharmaceutical student. By John J. Reese, Lecturer on
Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Philadelphia Medical
Institute, &c. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston. 1850.
The Druggists’ General Receipt Book : containing numerous
recipes for patent and proprietary medicines, Druggists’ nos-
trums, etc. ; Factitious Mineral Waters, and powders for pre-
paring them; with a Veterinary Formulary, and table of
veterinary Materia Medica ; also recipes for perfumery and
cosmetics ; beverages, dietetic articles and condiments ; trade
chemicals, miscellaneous compounds used in the arts, domestic
economy, fyc.; with useful tables and memoranda. By Henry
Beasley. Philadelphia. Lindsay & Blakiston. 1850.
In the last number of the Examiner our views in relation to
Formularies were freely expressed; it needs not, therefore, that a
repetition of them should be presented to the reader at this time in
connection with the works whose titles head this article. To the
author of the first named we gladly assign an honored place among
those who are engaged in facilitating the onward progress of the
art of medicine. Although we have our doubts, as was before ex-
pressed, whether the means employed in the present instance are
the best that could be adopted to advance the end. There is,
nevertheless, something in the name, The American Medical For-
mulary, that knocks loudly at the door of our sympathies, and the hand
of welcome is extended almost without inquiry. The term Ameri-
can, the author thinks, “may, without impropriety, be assigned to
it, since, throughout the work, in the description of the various
medicinal substances and pharmaceutical preparations, the prece-
dence has uniformly been given to those recognized by our national
Pharmacopoeia.” We regret that the publication was not delayed
a little until the revision of the U. S. Pharmacopoeia, just to take
place, had been completed, and the result of the deliberations of
that Convention made known.
In the arrangement of the work the alphabetical order has been
adopted, for the two-fold reason of easy reference, and the avoid-
ance of any classification of medicines, which is always more or
less arbitrary. Under this arrangement, every article that has a
place in the Pharmacopoeia of the United States and in those of
Great Britain, has been described ; together with a condensed
notice of its medical properties, uses, and mode of preparation.
To these are added some of the best and most valuable of the nu-
merous published prescriptions, both of hospitals and private prac-
tice, with, in nearly every case, the name of the author.
In the Appendix will be found a list of some of the more com-
mon and useful dietetic preparations; a brief description of poisons,
with reference to their treatment, antidotes, and tests ; a table of
signs and abbreviations; one of proportional doses; one of
weights and measures ; together with a table of the most cele-
brated mineral waters of the United States and Europe ; and one,
of the doses of the most important medicines, all of which cannot
fail to be of interest to the reader.
The author has manifested much care and research in the pre-
paration of the volume before us, and has presented us with a
work, in general, of great accuracy, which cannot fail to be useful
for reference, both to the practitioner and student, if used with
proper caution, and not relied upon to the exclusion of his own
powers of discrimination and judgment. But, as we have before
observed, the danger of all formularies is, that the young practi-
tioner seeing a formula prepared for some special malady, and em-
ployed by some well known authority, adopts it unhesitatingly,
and thus runs the great risk of becoming a mere routinist. To
this objection, however, the American Formulary is less open than
any other that we have seen, and we, therefore, with more confi-
dence commend it to the profession.
The work itself is one of a series now in course of preparation,
and of which five, including the present, have already appeared.
The publishers are entitled to the thanks of the profession, for the
desire they have manifested to supply good and sound material and
at so cheap a rate, and we hope that they may meet with the suc-
cess their enterprise so richly deserves. Its mechanical execution
is excellent.
The second work is a reprint from the English press, and in-
tended for the use of the druggist, who will find in it a large supply
of matter of value to him in his profession. To the country
druggist and storekeeper it will prove particularly valuable. As
we are without experience, however, in veterinary practice, and
in the preparation of perfumery, cosmetics, &c., we can give no
opinion as to the merits of the different formulae contained in it.
The title page presents,in itself, an analysis of its contents, which,
it will be seen, covers a large extent of surface. In the division
of Trade Chemicals are contained those compounds which are
employed for other purposes than those of medicine, among which
we have found much that wfill prove useful to the practical ma-
nipulator in almost every department of art, inasmuch as it supplies
him with information whereby much expense may be saved in the
preparation of his materials.