Acting Secretary of State Bacon to the Belgian Minister.

No. 378.]

Sir: Replying to the inquiry in your note of June 26 last, I have the honor to inform you that the United States is ready to proceed with the signature of the instrument intended to give diplomatic sanction to the resolutions of the Brussels conference for the unification of the formula of heroic medicines, with the reservation that the United States does not assume from the signing of the said instrument any obligation other than that of exerting its influence, when the American Pharmacopœia is next revised, to have it agree with the instrument; and with the further understanding that the reservation of the British Government of “the right to make in the [Page 83] provisions of the present arrangement such minor changes as may be required, from time to time, by the advance of the sciences of medicine and pharmacy,” be extended to all the signatories, as suggested in your note.

Accept, etc.,

Robert Bacon.