***a.^ST" iSSC™" }  United  States  Public  Health  Service.  159 
Service  to  the  Pharmacopceial  Convention  in  1880.  This  service  was 
also  among  the  first  of  the  government  services  to  adopt  the  phar- 
macopoeia as  the  standard  for  its  medical  supplies  and  to  require 
that  drugs  and  medicines  conform  strictly  with  these  official  require- 
ments. 
In  this  connection  it  may  also*  be  of  interest  to  point  out  that 
this  service  was  the  first  to  systematically  use  the  metric  system  of 
weights  and  measures  and  that  this  use  of  the  metric  system  by  one 
of  the  government  medical  services  played  a  very  important  part  in 
the  practical  adoption  of  the  metric  system  of  weights  and  measures 
in  the  sixth  decennial  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  United 
States. 
The  use  of  the  metric  system  of  weights  and  measures  was  made 
compulsory  in  the  then  "  Marine-Hospital  Service "  by  an  order 
signed  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  John  Sherman,  in  1878,  at 
the  request  of  Prof.  Oldberg,  and  the  steps  that  led  up  to  the  sign- 
ing of  the  order  are  well  foreshadowed  in  the  report  of  the  Super- 
vising General,  John  M.  Woodworth,  on  the  operation  of  the  Marine- 
Hospital  Service  for  the  fiscal  year  1877,  which  includes  a  lengthy 
report  on  the  adoption  of  metric  system  of  weights  and  measures 
for  medical  and  pharmacal  purposes,  by  Oscar  Oldberg,  then  chief 
clerk  and  acting  medical  purveyor  of  the  United  States  Marine- 
Hospital  Service. 
With  the  change  of  name  to  the  Public  Health  Service,  the  need 
for  cooperation  in  improving  the  available  supply  of  remedies  used 
in  the  treatment  of  diseases  and  the  perfecting  of  the  scientific  accu- 
racy in  pharmacopceial  requirements  has  become  more  and  more  ap- 
preciated and  provisions  have  from  time  to  time  been  made  for  active 
cooperation  in  the  work  of  associations  interested  in  the  promulga- 
tion of  the  truth  regarding  the  nature  of  medicines  of  various  kinds. 
The  general  importance  of  this  work  from  a  public  health  point  of 
view  had  in  a  measure  been  foreseen  by  the  inauguration  of  the 
Division  of  Scientific  Research  and  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,  particu- 
larly as  to  their  potency,  efficiency  and  pharmacopceial  purity.  Also 
and  in  a  more  direct  way,  by  the  authorization  by  law  to  undertake 
the  supervision  and  practical  control  of  certain  important  medicinal 
products,  such  as  sera  and  vaccines. 
In  1902  Congress  passed  a  law  requiring  that  all  persons  or  firms 
