Habit-Forming  Drugs. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1909. 
antitoxin  for  human  use  is  found  to  be  more  than  160  units  per 
cubic  centimetre. 
Now  the  physician,  when  he  buys  a  package  of  diphtheria  or 
tetanus  antitoxin  labelled  to  contain  iooo  or  2000  units,  as  the  case 
may  be,  can  be  absolutely  sure  that  his  patient  will  get  at  least 
that  number  of  units. 
Another  result  of  the  control  over  the  manufacture  of  these  sera 
has  been  a  progressive  increase  in  the  potency  of  the  sera  now 
marketed  and  as  marketed  four  or  five  years  ago.  I  should  say 
that  now  the  average  strength  of  the  diphtheria  antitoxin  placed 
upon  the  market  is  over  600  units,  whereas  four  or  five  years  ago 
the  average  strength  was  about  300  units ;  and  this  has  been  done 
without  an  increase  in  cost  of  the  sera  to  the  consumer. 
In  conclusion  I  would  say  that  the  tests  for  potency,  freedom 
from  bacterial  and  toxin  contamination,  and  the  amount  of  preserva- 
tive, are  necessarily  performed  upon  certain  small  animals.  Without 
the  use  of  physiological  tests  for  the  determination  of  these  points 
there  would  be  no  way  in  which  we  could  arrive  at  any  conclusion 
as  to  the  strength  of  the  various  sera  and  their  freedom  from  certain 
toxins,  especially  those  made  by  the  tetanus  bacillus. 
EXISTING  LAWS  REGULATING  THE  SALE  OF  HABIT- 
FORMING  DRUGS  AND  THE  NECESSITY  FOR 
ADDITIONAL  LEGISLATION.1 
By  L.  F.  Kebler, 
Chief,  Division  of  Drugs,  Bureau  of  Chemistry,  Department  of  Agriculture. 
The  fact  that  certain  drugs  tend  to  produce  pernicious  habits 
when  improperly  used,  or  used  without  due  circumspection,  has 
been^known  since  the  memory  of  man,  but  it  is  only  within  the  last 
few  decades  that  any  material  legislation  has  been  enacted  in  this 
country  tending  to  limit,  their  indiscriminate  sale.  Habit-forming 
drugs  are  poisonous.  The  prime  object  for  enacting  laws  governing 
the  sale  of  poisons,  etc.,  and  restricting  their  sale  to  druggists,  etc., 
is  to  inform  the  public  that  these  agents  are  not  only  dangerous  to 
life  but  should  be  used  with  the  utmost  precaution.   The  main  object 
*Read  at  the  second  regular  meeting  of  the  Washington  Branch  of  the 
A.  Ph.  A.,  Jan.  12,  1909. 
