The manufacturers assert that they do not understand how specimens of these ages could have been purchased on the open market in 1913 and 1914, inasmuch as their agents are and long have been instructed to take up from the druggist all lots of Lactopeptine which, as indicated by the batch numbers, have attained “any appreciable age.” The age of the specimens, the manufacturers declare, deprives the table in the second referee’s report of “all significance or interest.” As previously stated, however, the specimens of Lactopeptine examined were purchased on the open market in various localities in unbroken packages, in December, 1913, and January, 1914. They thus represent stock used in filling physicians’ prescriptions or sold to the public. Neither the referees nor any one connected with the Council had any means of knowing the age of the specimens until the dates of manufacture were furnished by the New York Pharmacal Association. The first tests of the second referee were made in February, 1914, on Specimens 2374 and 2383, which were then, it would appear, about one year old and four months old, respectively. The Council has repeatedly urged that pharmaceutical substances which are subject to deterioration should be dated by the manufacturer, and a similar suggestion has been made by the Bureau of Chemistry of the U. S. Department of Agriculture concerning mixtures containing enzymes. Notwithstanding the instructions which the New York Pharmacal Association claims to have given its agents, the market supply of Lactopeptine in December, 1913, and January, 1914, was not composed of new stock, and until the manufacturers adopt the practice of dating packages, there can be no assurance that it will be fresh. In this connection, it is of interest to note that the Bureau of Chemistry of the U. S. Department of Agriculture has issued a warning that it will judge such products by the degree of their activity when they reach the consumer, i. e., as they are found on the market. REPORTS OF OTHER CHEMISTS