160  United  States  Public  Health  Service.  {AmXprSr'i9i4arm* 
engaged  in  the  manufacture  and  interstate  sale  of  viruses,  serums, 
toxins,  and  similar  products  should  be  licensed  by  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  for  the  sale  of  such  products.  An  inspection  has  to  be 
made  of  the  stables,  methods,  etc.,  of  the  firm  desiring  to  be  licensed 
and  an  examination  of  all  their  products  has  to  be  made  in  the 
Hygienic  Laboratory.  After  a  consideration  of  the  inspector's  re- 
port on  the  firm's  plant  and  the  report  on  the  examination  in  the 
Hygienic  Laboratory  of  the  various  products,  a  license  is  either 
issued  or  declined.  In  connection  with  the  enforcement  of  this 
law  the  Public  Health  Service  has  promulgated  certain  regulations 
to  govern  those  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  these  important  ther- 
apeutic products  and  has  established  standards  for  the  measurement 
of  the  potency  of  some  of  them. 
For  a  number  of  years  members  of  the  staff  of  the  Hygienic 
Laboratory  have  actively  cooperated  in  the  work  of  the  Council  on 
Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  the 
Committee  on  National  Formulary  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association  and  the  Committee  on  Non-official  Standards  of  that 
latter  Association. 
This  cooperative  work  done  by  members  of  the  staff  of  the 
division  of  pharmacology  in  connection  with  these  several  commit- 
tees is  no  doubt  familiar  to  you  and  need  not  be  specifically  reviewed 
at  this  time. 
The  division  of  pharmacology  of  the  Hygienic  Laboratory  has 
also  contributed  much  in  the  way  of  cooperative  work  on  the  revision 
of  the  pharmacopoeia  and  has  undertaken  the  study  of  a  number  of 
problems  in  connection  with  the  present  revision.  The  results  have 
from  time  to  time  been  published  either  in  the  form  of  bulletins  or 
in  papers  contributed  to  the  pharmaceutical  or  medical  journals. 
Up  to  date  these  studies  include:  The  standardization  of  thyroid 
products;  the  standardization  of  the  adrenal  gland  products,  more 
particularly;  the  standardization  of  epinephrine;  the  physiological 
standardization  of  the  official  preparations  of  digitalis  and  ^f  ergot; 
the  possible  standardization  of  tincture  of  caramel,  and  comprehen- 
sive investigations  on  the  solubility  and  on  the  melting  point  of 
official  chemical  substances. 
Of  even  more  direct  interest  to  pharmacists  as  an  illustration  of 
the  nature  of  cooperative  work  done  in  the  Hygienic  Laboratory  are 
the  publications  of  the  series  of  "  Digest  of  comments  on  the  Phar- 
macopoeia of  the  United  States  and  the  National  Formulary." 
