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in relation to pharmacologically active substances in a whole variety 

 of marine organisms. It is trying to stimulate work on elucidating 

 which particular marine organisms in the food chain are the origins 

 of the toxins. The presence of a toxin in a fish may mean merely that 

 the toxin is concentrated there after having been produced originally in 

 a small planktonic organism and having been passed eventually to the 

 fish through the various organisms who have grazed on what is called 

 the sea grass and the predators which have eaten the gr-azers. 



So, work on the cultivation of some of the small algae and protozoa 

 in the sea becomes important. 



There has been work very recently in our marine laboratory in Ala- 

 bama which has resulted in the cultivation of a small dinoflagellate 

 and the identification of a toxin in it which seems to be similar to 

 the toxin in some shellfish. This kind of work will be very useful. 



Toxins very frequently turn out in diminished concentrations to 

 have pharmacological value when used. I can point out coumarin, 

 which is hemorrhage producing poison if given in large amomits^ 

 but which is a very effective drug for the control of clotting, and is 

 used, for instance, in the control of cardiovascular disease. Other 

 toxins have become useful drugs b}^ judicious use. We think we will 

 find the same kind of thing to be true of many products derived from 

 marine organisms. 



Our committee is attempting now to gather all this type of informa- 

 tion and to see how we can stmiulate further work in this field. 



I might say that it doesn't require a lot of stimulation because I 

 can show you here a record of a conference held just this post summer, 

 an international symposium on comparative pharmacology, I have 

 gone through the proceedings of the symposium, and there are about 

 a dozen papers which are devoted to pharmacologically active sub- 

 stances from the sea. There is a lot of interest because pharmacologists 

 and other people realize the potential in the use of such organisms. 



Mr. Lennox. Would it be fair to say that the creation of the National 

 Council, or a Presidential Commission under the Marine Resources has 

 made a contribution to the stimulus of you and the others in this 

 field? 



Dr. Jacobs. I am a little too new in my oAvn job here to be able 

 to make an objective statement about that. 



Mr. Lennon. There was a committee formed by the direction of 

 the National Council and you succeeded the gentleman who was orig- 

 inally named ? 



Dr. Jacobs. That is right. This would indicate activity, yes. 



Mr. Lennon. We are delighted to hear that. 



Dr. Jacobs. What I was about to say is that many of our programs 

 have been going on for a long period of time. "\'\^iat we have done so 

 far is to get a focal point of information, rather than to stimulate a 

 lar^e amount of new activity yet. We would like to stimulate new 

 activit}^, but this must take into consideration to overall program 

 within HEW and whatever constraints we get from the budget. 



Mr. Pelly. Dr. Jacobs, I think it was the chairman of this com- 

 mittee in his interrogation of a witness some years ago who brought 

 out the fact that HEW was putting a research installation near a 

 facility of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, both of which were 



