Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1958. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Wraps. [2],607, [1] pages. Tables. Figures. Index. Three-hole punched and staple bound. Front cover is separated but present. Cover has wear and soiling. Cold War era item. At its basic level, a formulary is a list of medicines. Traditionally, a formulary contained a collection of formulas for the compounding and testing of medication (a resource closer to what would be referred to as a pharmacopoeia today). Today, the main function of a prescription formulary is to specify particular medications that are approved to be prescribed at a particular hospital, in a particular health system, or under a particular health insurance policy. The development of prescription formularies is based on evaluations of efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of drugs. Depending on the individual formulary, it may also contain additional clinical information, such as side effects, contraindications, and doses. By the turn of the millennium, 156 countries had national or provincial essential medicines lists and 135 countries had national treatment guidelines and/or formulary manuals. This technical manual uses portions of the text of The United States Pharmacopeia, Fifthteenth Revision, official December 15, 1955, portions of The National Formulary, Tenth Edition with permission, quotations from New and Nonofficial Drugs, and other texts with permission. More