488 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



FOOD RESEARCH LABOR.\TORY. 



The plans for the coming year extend and develop the lines of 

 work already begun on the deterioration of poultry. The study of 

 the hanilling of eggs along similar lines will be especially developed 

 during the next fiscal year, since the question is one of great impor- 

 tance to the consumer and is a matter just now much in the public 

 mind. These studies are of fundamental importance in settling 

 questions raised under the food law. The poultry study, as planned, 

 includes shipping and marketing experiments on fowls chilled in dry, 

 cool air and also in water. The question of " wet " and " dry " pack- 

 ing is one concerning which the shippers do not agree, and it is ex- 

 pected that valuable information for the solution of this problem will 

 be obtained. The study involves, also, some broad problems on the 

 strictly scientific side, since it necessitates work on the relation of 

 humidity, osmosis, temperature, etc., to bacterial growth and chemi- 

 cal change, both bacterial and enzymic. 



DRUG WORK. 



The Drug Inspection Laboratory will continue to examine domes- 

 tic drugs, check analyses of imported drugs not provided for by the 

 special laboratories, and keep such systematic records of domestic and 

 imported drugs required for the handling of cases as are necessary. 

 Special investigation of certain drug products imported into the 

 United States which may be dangerous to the health of the people 

 will be made, such as preparations, sold indiscriminately, containing 

 habit-forming drugs. Particular attention will be devoted to the 

 improvement of methods of analysis, such as the detection and deter- 

 mination quantitatively of various alkaloids and other plant con- 

 stituents contained in the complex mixtures upon the market. The 

 time spent by analysts as witnesses in connection with cases under the 

 food and drugs act will doubtless be increased. Plans have been 

 made, now that some of the necessary preliminary work has been done 

 in the drug field, to have a more vigorous part taken in the 

 drug inspection w-ork by the port laboratories than has hitherto been 

 possible, which Avill greatly increase the efficiency and thoroughness 

 of the control of such products. Especially is this true of the eastern 

 drugs imported on the Pacific coast. 



The pharmacological studies reported as under way will be con- 

 tinued, these being of a nature to require observation for an extended 

 period before final conclusions can be drawn; other studies will be 

 made as necessitated by the questions raised in the prosecution of the 

 drug work. 



The work on essential oils aijd synthetic products will continue 

 along the line indicated in the report ; a special study of methods for 

 estimating salicylates will be begun. At the New York laboratory 

 the study of crude drugs will be continued as a special feature of the 

 work, particularly with reference to limits of ash, alkaloids, resin, 

 and volatile and nonvolatile ether extracts. 



MISCELLANEOUS DIVISION. 



The mineral-water survey of the United States begun in 1904 will 

 be continued. Other important lines of water work under the food 

 and drugs act will be continued. Improved methods of mineral- 



