44 Kansas Academy of Science. 



RELATION OF THE NEW FOOD AND DRUG LAW TO 

 OFFICIAL PREPARATIONS. 



By L. D. Havenhill, University of Kansas, Lawrence. 



A T the present time, when so much is being said and written 

 -^^ concerning wholesale adulteration and substitution, it is no 

 wonder that people are becoming suspicious of almost if not quite 

 everything with which they come in contact. That they feel their 

 inability, as individuals, to cope with these alarming conditions is 

 evidenced by their demand for legislative enactments for their 

 protection. 



This condition of affairs is especially true with reference to foods 

 and drugs, substances so specifically essential to the health of the 

 human family. These two classes of substances are usually grouped 

 under a common head, especially in our statutes, though in reality 

 they have little in common aside from their relation to the health 

 of the individuals of the nation. 



The United States government has for a number of years been 

 actively engaged in the analysis of foods and the publication of 

 methods for their analysis, and for the detection of their chief 

 adulterants. It is, however, only recently that it has interested 

 itself in the question of drugs and their adulterants, but it is in- 

 teresting to note in this connection that it considered this branch 

 of investigation sufficiently removed from the province of food 

 chemistry to equip a new laboratory for this purpose, and to place 

 it under the immediate direction of a man who is not only a trained 

 pharmacist and chemist but one who has for years been actively 

 engaged in the preparation and analysis of drugs and medicines. 

 Several bulletins have already been issued by the chief of this new 

 laboratory and many important problems are now in the course of 

 solution. Aside from the activity displayed by the federal govern- 

 ment in the interests of pure foods and drugs, several states are be- 

 ginning to evince an activity in this direction, Kansas among 

 others. This state has had for years a good law regulating the 

 quality of foods and drugs, but it had almost become a dead letter 

 through want of an enforcing officer. The last legislature, how- 

 ever, took action in this direction with reference to foods, and since 

 January of this year a considerable amount of investigation has 

 been done by the State Board of Health. This organization has 

 also interested itself in the question of pure drugs, and there i& 



