Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-08-13
CARE OF PUBLIC HEAL I'll
Work of Government Labora-
 tory at Washington.
MOSQUITO sLIoIEG BY MACHINERY

For Yellow FeVSr &Grm-S41 VhOu-
 sand Guinea Pigs Used Annually
 In Establishing Standards of se-
 rums and Toxics.
 By an act of congress passed in 1902 to regulate the sale of vaccine virus and antitoxine serum all dealers in these articles who are engaged in in- terstate traffic are compelled to get license from the secretary of the treas ury, and that official, before giving the license, must see that the products are up to the standard, says the Washing ton correspondent of the New York Post
 This law accounts for no small part of the work of the recently erected laboratory of the public health and ma- rine hospital service on the grounds of the old naval observatory at Wash ington overlooking the Potomac. To get and to retain the license the virus and toxics must be submitted to regu- lar examinations through samples se- Iected at random by this bureau of the treasury, over which pr. Walter Wy man presides, This bureau also sent an expert to Europe to examine the serum which is sent from abroad.
 Once at the laborator all the sam ples are planted in the proper culture media, and the organisms that grow are examined as to number and kind, and also for their effect on animal life. The laboratory also ascertains whether a given antitoxic has as much immunizing value as 1t claims to have on the label. thus establishing certain standards of strength of great value to the careful practitioner.
 But this is only one of many inter esting things that the new laboratory is doing. It has 8 little machine for slicing mosquitoes preparatory to their examination under the microscope. An ordinary Vera Cruz mosquito. which is the kind now under scrutiny, is cut into about twenty-five slices; these slices are arranged on glass slides for examination under a powerful micro scope as part of the search after the germ that causes yellow fever. An ex- animation is now in progress of the little organism that causes the "sleep- ing sickness" of the west coast of Afri- ca. This, so far as known, affects as yet only the natives, but it is sufficient Iy serious to invite the attention of for eign scientists.
 The manufacturers of diphtheria an titoxic have had to get their standard serum from Germany. This laboratory is now preparing to supply the serum in a form suitable for distribution among manufacturers and research workers. Everybody in the United States will eventually get serum the standard of which will be in the United States; whenever the manufacturers put out vial of the article practitioners can know its strength in exact units. In the development of these standards many guinea pigs are utilized; they are injected with the diphtheritic toxic and then with the antitoxic until the exact strength of one necessary to neu- tralize the other has been ascertained.
 Tn fact. the basement of the new lab- oratory looks almost like geological park, with its cages of mice, rabbits and guinea pigs under observation. Cards in front of each compartment record faithfully the history of the case, Scales for weighing the animals are at hand. They are all treated hu- namely. so that the antiVivisec ectionists have no fault to find, No operation is ever performed on an animal unless 1t is under an anaesthetic. They are all well fed. but, like Dr. Wiiey's poison squad at the department of agriculture. find their food dosed with the drug un- der examination in its different degrees of strength in order to test various pos sible effects. This is an important serv- ice the animals perform as we'll as In the production of antitoxic. To raise its own specimens the laboratory main tains an extensive ablishment. It is- estimated that 1t will take 5000 guinea pigs year, besides many rabbits and mice, for the legitimate operations of the laboratory.
 The geological division has been in- vestigating the hook worm, besides doing much general work. All the drugs used in the public health and marine hospital service. which has 60000 patients year, are examined in the pharmacologica division. This branch of the laboratory is also on the lookout for new alkaloidal principles in drugs and is constantly studying the effects of new drugs upon animals. This is chiefly research work. Of late some of the most important expert ments have been made with quinine compounds, and although the results are not quite ready for presentation, the prospect is that some important discoveries may be annouhced. The aim was to secure compound which would kill the micro organisms that quinine is so effective in attacking, but one which would be without the ordi- nary disagreeable effects of that drug, Experiments have gone far enough to show a quinine derivattve, which is great deal more effective on these micro organisms, but not so' injurious to warm blooded animals, The tests have not yet been applied to human beings, but the poisonous qualities of the compound have been pretty well