AmAuJoaiUst'iioim'}  Pharmacy  and  Public  Health  Service.  377 
is  exceeded  in  size  and  importance  only  by  the  Division  of  Bacteri- 
ology and  Pathology,  and  the  scientific  work  that  has  been  done 
under  the  direction  of  its  chief,  Dr.  Reid  Hunt,  is  widely  recognized 
as  being  of  distinct  scientific  value.  This  work  is  particularly  inter- 
esting in  that  it  is  of  prophetic  import;  being  representative  of  the 
future  of  pharmacy  and  indicative  of  the  work  that  can  be  and  very 
properly  should  be,  done  by  the  professional  pharmacist  if  he  is  to 
continue  as  the  accepted  authority  on  information  relating  to  drugs 
and  medicines. 
Much  of  the  work  that  has  been  done  up  to  the  present  time 
relates  more  or  less  directly  to  the  materials  included  in  the  Pharma- 
copoeia of  the  United  States. 
One  of  the  earlier  bulletins  emanating  from  the  Division  of 
Pharmacology,  included  a  discussion  of  the  changes  in  the  U.S. P. 
VIII,  particularly  the  nature  and  properties  of  the  new  remedies 
that  were  included  in  that  book. 
More  recent  bulletins  deal  largely  with  compilations  of  com- 
ments on  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  United  States  and  the  National 
Formulary.  These  compilations  are  being  prepared  at  the  request 
of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  U.S. P.  Convention,  and,  it  is  ex- 
pected, will  be  of  material  assistance  in  the  forthcoming  revision 
of  the  U.S.P. 
While  much  routine  work  is  done  in  connection  with  the  ex- 
amination of  chemicals  and  pharmaceutical  supplies,  the  possibility 
of  making  original  investigations  is  not  lost  sight  of  and  the  hours 
devoted  to  such  investigations  are  by  no  means  limited  to  the  work- 
ing hours  prescribed  by  the  Government  regulations. 
The  publications  emanating  from  the  Division  include  communi- 
cations on  the  study  of  the  various  suprarenal  preparations,  the 
standardization  of  preparations  of  the  thyroid  gland,  the  toxicity 
of  acetanilid  mixtures,  the  variability  of  and  methods  of  standard- 
izing preparations  of  digitalis,  the  solubility  of  pharmacopceial  com- 
pounds, the  melting  points  of  chemical  substances,  and  the  applica- 
tion of  the  U.S.P.  analytical  methods  to  the  purity  rubric]^ 
Even  this  meagre  record  should  suffice  to  convince  the  most 
skeptical  that  in  at  least  one  of  the  Government  Medical  Services. 
"Pharmacy,-"  Pharmacia  Vera/'  has  received  proper  recognition  and 
that  the  work  now  being  done  in  the  Division  of  Pharmacology  of 
the  Public  Health  and  Marine-Hospital  Service  is  destined  to  open 
up  for  true  pharmacy  a  field  of  activity  that  is  as  yet  but  imperfectly 
occupied. 
