AmA^ri9oh9arm'[  Federal  Control  of  Therapeutic  Sera.  185 
mendation  of  the  Surgeon-General,  after  a  sanitary  inspection  has 
been  made  of  their  establishments,  methods,  and  products. 
An  inspector  visits  the  establishment  and  examines  carefully  the 
sanitary  condition  of  the  buildings,  the  condition  of  the  animals 
used  for  the  production  of  the  serum,  the  technic — such  as  methods 
of  bleeding,  collecting  and  storing  the  serum,  and  especially  the 
methods  used  in  measuring  the  strength  of  their  product.  He  sees 
as  to  the  labelling  of  the  product,  paying  especial  attention  to  the 
date  when  the  serum  is  labelled  to  be  exchanged.  He  also  takes 
samples  of  their  various  products,  which  are  forwarded  to  the 
Hygienic  Laboratory  for  examination. 
Upon  the  results  of  the  examination  of  these  samples  and  his 
inspection  of  the  establishments  are  based  his  recommendation  for 
or  against  a  license  for  the  particular  establishment. 
After  a  firm  has  been  licensed  to  engage  in  the  manufacture  and 
interstate  sale  of  these  products,  samples  of  their  products  are 
bought  at  frequent  intervals  in  various  parts  of  the  country  and 
examined  in  the  laboratory.  These  samples  are  examined,  first, 
as  to  labelling;  second,  as  to  the  potency  of  the  product;  third,  as 
to  sterility  and  the  presence  of  toxins ;  fourth,  as  to  the  amount  of 
preservative. 
If  the  samples  are  found  to  be  deficient  in  any  of  the  above 
particulars,  the  matter  is  at  once  reported  to  the  Surgeon-General 
who,  in  the  case  of  a  lack  of  potency,  contamination,  or  excessive 
amount  of  preservative,  requires  the  manufacturer  to  withdraw  from 
the  market  that  particular  lot  of  serum.  This  is  a  comparatively 
easy  matter  for  them  to  do,  as  they  are  required  to  label  each  lot  of 
serum  with  a  laboratory  number  and  keep  records  to  whom  the 
same  is  sold. 
Since  April  1,  1905,  many  samples  of  serum  have  been  examined 
in  the  Hygienic  Laboratory,  and  of  this  number  only  a  very  few 
have  been  found  to  be  below  strength  or  contain  a  less  number  of 
units  than  labelled,  or  to  have  bacterial  contamination. 
The  great  advantage  of  this  strict  control  over  these  products  to 
the  physician,  and  consequently  in  the  control  of  the  various  diseases 
for  which  they  are  used,  is  of  course  very  manifest. 
There  is  at  present  no  control  over  the  sera  for  veterinary  use. 
We  have  recently  examined  in  the  laboratory  some  veterinary 
tetanus  antitoxins  and  found  them  to  contain  less  than  25  units  per 
cubic  centimetre,  whereas  the  minimum  strength  of  any  tetanus 
