210 ANNUAL REPOETS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



include samples which were analyzed by the branch laboratories of 

 this Bureau. These are included among the miscellaneous samples 

 given in Table I. 



Table II. — Miscellaneoiis analyses for other brancltes of the Government. 



Department of State 2 



Department of the Treasury 2 



Department of War 32 



Department of Justice 2 



Post Office Department 2 



Department of the Navy S3 



Department of the Interior 3 



Department of Commerce 9 



Government Printing Office 3 



The Panama Canal 28 



District of Columbia 16 



Federal Trade Commission * 3 



Miscellaneous 501 



Total 681 



TEN YEARS OF THE FOOD AND DRUGS ACT. 



The Food and Drugs xA.ct is a remedial statute with penal pro- 

 visions, and its purpose is to correct the practice of adulterating and 

 misbranding foods and drugs and thereby protect the health of the 

 people. 



The first 10 years of the enforcement of the Food and Drugs Act 

 of June 30, 1906, ended January 1, 1917. It is therefore fitting at 

 this time to present a brief history of the act, and the work accom- 

 plished under its authority during the decade. 



It is perhaps impossible for any one correctly to estimate the gen- 

 eral effect of the Food and Drugs Act. To state that more than six 

 thousand cases have been terminated in the courts during the first 

 decade since the enactment of the act, that manufacturers have been 

 cited to hearing more than forty thousand times, that many thou- 

 sands of factory inspections have been made, that more than seven 

 hundred and fifty thousand shipments of food and drugs, both domes- 

 tic and imported, have been examined, gives but an imperfect indica- 

 tion of results. The accomplishments under the Food and Drugs Act 

 can be proven only in part by reference to the files of the Bureau. 

 A measure of the corrective influence of the act is the true measure 

 of accomplishment. Perhaps such an estimate can best be gained, 

 though imperfectly, by considering the effect of the act upon food 

 and drug control by the States, upon the development of the food 

 and drug industries, and by the enumeration of some of the principal 

 abuses that have been corrected. 



One of the consequences of the enactment of the Food and Drugs 

 Act was to stimulate the enactment of similar legislation in many 

 of the States, in order to control the local traffic in foods and drugs 

 which, since no interstate commerce is involved, is not subject to the 

 Federal Act. For example, in 1906 a considerable number of States 

 had feeding-stuffs laws, but many had none. A State could not 

 prosecute a manufacturer unless he were a citizen of that State. The 

 Federal law supplements the State law in this respect, and now most 

 of the States have similar laws. Naturally, in the beginning much 



