The Pill Book; or, Pills, Boluses, Globules, Grains and Granules,
Phannacopoeial, Hospital, and Magistral; their Preparations, Formulas, Doses, Leading Uses and Synonyms, including Quack Medicines. By Arnold J. Cooley. (Hardwioke.)—Wo think it the greatest possible mercy that we know scarcely one of the concoctions which Mr. Cooley describes. We are unable to judge whether his history of Abernethy's pills is correct, or whether he has misrepresented those estimable ooncooters of universal remedies, Messrs. Morrison and. Holloway. One leviathan nostrum-monger of New York is said to have fear powerful steam- engines always at work grinding drugs and manufacturing pills. Of an English brother in the trade Mr. Cooley says that some of his pills are rather heavier and others lighter than the average, but each a trifle is beneath the consideration of the millionaire who compounds and vends them. As there are such quantities of pills of all kinds, and as Mr. Cooley says the use of them is very popular, we can hardly wonder that some do not stand the test of scientific criticism. But Mr. Cooley is too impartial to omit even these from his list, and we feel convinced that his list must be complete, for the imagination of man is not sufficiently fertile to invent more kinds of pills than will fill 110 pages.
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