212 ANNUAL KEPOETS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUEE. 



and some of them deA'ote considerable sums annually to experimental 

 research designed to solve the technical problems with wliich the in- 

 dustry is confronted. Thus, there is made available to the small man- 

 ufacturer scientific assistance which would ordinarily be obtainable 

 only by large corporations maintaining their own staff of investiga- 

 tors. Since the Bureau of Chemistry has always regarded it as its 

 duty not merely to report violations of the law but also to prevent 

 Aiolations by constructive work intended to improve methods of 

 manufacture, it cooperates actively with such associations of manu- 

 facturers. Such cooperation by the various Government agencies 

 is bound to exert the prof oundest influence on the country's industrial 

 and social development. 



The best evidence that many of the abuses formerly occurring in 

 the food industry have ceased, is to be found in the fact that the vio- 

 lations of the Food and Drugs Act observed today are hardly com- 

 parable with those which obtained during the first few years of the 

 past decade. Most of the staple food products now found in violation 

 are either of a higher grade than formerly, or are products of the 

 clever adulterator, that is of those who have more or less anticipated 

 the ordinary means of detection by so manipulating their products 

 that not infrequently the adulteration can be detected only by the 

 most detailed and painstaking chemical analysis coupled with fac- 

 tory inspection. In consequence there has been a decided change in 

 the direction of the work. It has of recent years developed quite 

 noticeably in the direction of factory sanitation, of the study of 

 spoilage and decomposition of foodstuffs, and of the improvement 

 through laboratory research of the methods of detecting the more re- 

 fined new types of adulterations. 



The Food and Drugs Act's chief contributions to the safeguarding 

 of the peoples' health have been its effect upon the drug and patent 

 medicine industry, upon the control of the traffic in polluted, decom- 

 posed or filthy foods and upon the elimination from foodstuffs of 

 contamination with poisons such as lead and arsenic which entered 

 the product because of the use of impure reagents in the process of 

 manufacture, or of utensils constructed of improper materials. 



The misbranding in regard to therapeutic value of hundreds of 

 alleged cancer cures, of alleged cures for coughs, colds, consumption, 

 etc., of alleged cures for diseases of the kidney, epilepsy, St. Vitus 

 Dance, and the like, has been corrected. Unfortunately in many in- 

 stances the result has been merely to transfer the false and fraudulent 

 claims from the package to newspapers and other publicity media 

 over which the act exercises no jurisdiction. The law requires the 

 labels of patent medicines to declare the presence of any habit-form- 

 ing drugs such as opium or cocaine or alcohol contained in them, 

 thus preventing the innocent development of the drug habit which 

 undoubtedly was common. This provision of the law is particularly 

 valuable in warning mothers against the use of so-called infants' 

 soothing sirups containing opium. It has without question done 

 much to limit the use of medicines as tipples. In consequence of the 

 requirement that habit-forming drugs be declared upon the label the 

 formulae of some nostrums was changed by the reduction or even the 

 elimination of the habit-forming agent. Drug addiction, in fact, 

 was so prevalent that frauds in the treatment of these unfortunates 



