PREFACE. 
The reorganization of the Marine-Hospital Service in 1871, under 
the direction of a supervising surgeon-general, evidenced the ad- 
visability of extending the work of this service so as to provide for 
much needed supervision of varied interests relating to the public 
health. 
Of the many activities that have been developed by the service 
in this connection, few are of more wide-spread importance to the 
welfare of the public at large, or more intimately connected with the 
medical efficiency of the service itself, than an active participation 
and interest in the revision of the Pharmacopoeia of the United 
States. This fact was early recognized and the service has been 
regularly represented at each decennial meeting of the Pharmaco- 
poeial Revision Convention held since its reorganization as a bureau 
in 1871, and several of the representatives of the Marine-Hospital 
Service have served as members of the revision committee. The 
Marine-Hospital Service was also among the first of the government 
services to adopt the pharmacopoeia as the standard for its medical 
supplies and to require that drugs and medicines conform strictly 
with these official requirements. 
With the change of name of the service to the Public Health and 
Marine-Hospital Service, this need for cooperation in improving the 
scientific accuracy of the pharmacopoeia has become even more 
evident. The requirements have in a measure been met by the intro- 
duction of a division of scientific research, the establishment in the 
Hygienic Laboratory of a division of pharmacology devoted to the 
scientific investigation of drugs as they relate to the public health, 
particularly with reference to their potency and pharmacopoeial 
purity, and the distinct authorization to undertake the supervision 
and practical control of certain important medicinal products, such 
as sera and vaccines. 
As evidence that the nature of this cooperation is appreciated, it 
may be pointed out that the description given for diphtheria anti- 
toxin in Bulletin No. 21 of the Hygienic Laboratory was included 
in the U. S. P., VIII, without change, has proven to be generally 
acceptable, and provides that “ the standard of strength expressed 
in antitoxic power should be that approved or established by the 
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