ADULTERATION OF FOOD AND MEDICINE 297 



the life and health giving forces a needed lesson. From 1897 

 to 1903, inclusive, nine thousand one hundred and seventeen 

 samples of foods, drugs, and beverages were analyzed, of which 

 five thousand six hundred and three were pure, and three 

 thousand four hundred and seventy four were adulterated. 

 At least seventy five per cent of all the food stuffs im- 

 ported, come through the port of New York. Enabled by a 

 government appropriation to prosecute the work, the depart- 

 ment of agriculture, a few years ago, began a crusade against 

 fraud in imported foods and drugs. They found that al^out 

 one half of the importations were adulterated, in some form. 

 By some it is claimed that at the present time, it is reduced 

 to about five per cent. Cheap wines, from one section, were 

 labeled as coming from other vintages, whose brand had a 

 higher commercial value. The government can remove these 

 labels, but they can be replaced, after entering into the Amer- 

 ican trade, unless another strong hand intervenes between 

 middle men and consumer. This is true of most other imports, 

 but it is a great step to have the pure article landed at the 

 seaboard. In January, 1902, Dr. Ernest Lederle was ap- 

 pointed commissioner of health, under Mayor Seth Low. The 

 health department kept pace with others during this reform 

 administration. The total amount of injurious food con- 

 demned in 1892 was twelve million two hundred and ninety 

 three thousand seven hundred and sixty one pounds. Nine- 

 teen thousand one hundred and eighteen dollars was collected 

 in fines for violations of the sanitary code, as against six 

 thousand two hundred and ninety two dollars, the previous 

 year, and fifty two per cent of the milk was found adul- 

 terated. Of three hundred and fifteen samples of one drug, 

 phenacetin, only fifty eight were pure. It was principally 

 adulterated with acetanilid, worth only one fourth as much. 

 As the remedy is often taken without a physician's prescrip- 

 tion, no heart depressant should be used as an admixture. 

 In 1904 in New York city, out of eight himdred and seventy 

 one samples of drugs, three hundred and ten were either 

 impure or substitutes; throughout the state, nine hundred 

 and seventy six drug samples were taken, and analysis 

 showed four hundred and fifteen below the standard. Penn- 



