430  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  {As™pteS)erfi9bT* 
The  great  need  of  an  official  standard  for  tetanus  antitoxin  had 
been  long  felt  by  all  producers  of  this  serum.  Before  the  adoption 
of  the  American  standard  there  were  as  many  methods  of  measuring 
the  potency  of  tetanus  antitoxin  in  the  United  States  as  there  were 
producers.  The  druggist  in  selling  a  package  of  tetanus  antitoxin, 
or  the  physician  in  using  the  same,  before  the  adoption  of  the  official 
standard,  had  no  real  idea  of  its  antitoxic  power,  as  one  maker's 
product  might  be  labelled  "  to  contain  6,000,000  units  per  c.c."  and 
another  "  0.75  units  per  c.c,"  when,  in  fact,  according  to  the  official 
standard,  the  first  had  only  90  units  per  c.c.  and  the  latter  actually 
over  700  units  per  c.c. 
An  Act  of  Congress  approved  July  1,  1902,  entitled  "An  Act 
to  regulate  the  sale  of  viruses,  serums,  toxins,  and  analogous 
products,  etc./'  imposed  upon  the  Surgeon-General  of  the  U.  S. 
Public  Health  and  Marine-Hospital  Service,  under  direction  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  supervision  and  control  of  the  manu- 
facture and  interstate  sale  of  these  important  therapeutic  agencies. 
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  to  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  dis- 
eases for  which  they  are  used,  is  of  course  very  manifest. 
Now  the  physician  when  he  buys  a  package  of  diphtheria  or 
tetanus  antitoxin  labelled  to  contain  1000  or  2000  units,  as  the  case 
may  be,  can  be  absolutely  sure  that  his  patient  will  get  at  least  that 
number  of  units. 
Tetanus  antitoxin  is  in  the  Belgian,  French,  and  Swiss  Pharma- 
copoeias, and  should  certainly  be  included  in  the  next  revision  of 
the  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  United  States.  Its  great  value  as  a  pro- 
phylactic without  regard  to  its  curative  action  in  developed  tetanus, 
and  the  fact  that  there  is  now  an  official  standard,  entitle  it  to 
admission. 
By  being  admitted  to  the  Pharmacopoeia,  which  contains  the 
standards  for  therapeutic  products,  definite  directions  as  to  the 
methods  of  preserving  the  serum,  total  solids,  physical  appearance, 
etc.,  can  be  made.  All  antitoxic  sera  deteriorate  by  age ;  this  deteri- 
oration is  less  and  more  gradual  when  the  sera  are  kept  under 
proper  conditions  as  to  light  and  temperature.    Sera  kept  at  room 
