36 POWDERED VEGETABLE DRUGS 



In mentioning the activities working in behalf of better drugs, we 

 must not forget to mention the Council of Pharmacy and Chemistry of 

 the American Medical Association, with offices and laboratories at 

 Chicago. The council has adopted certain rules and regulations 

 governing the admission of proprietary articles manufactured by 

 reliable manufacturing houses into the annual publication of the 

 council, " New and Nonoffi cial Remedies. " The council also tests and 

 exposes fake remedies and the results of such investigations are 

 published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 



There should be a well-defined cooperation between Federal and 

 State laboratories. Federal inspectors should play directly into the 

 hands of the state inspectors and vice versa. In this way it would be 

 possible to trace all suspicious importations to their final destiny. 

 This is especially important because of the double or sub-standard 

 clause in the law. Under the law there is no restriction on the importa- 

 tion of clove stems (even though declared to be for the sole purpose of 

 adding to cloves to the extent of 5 per cent., which the law allows), 

 of ground olive pits when declared to be intended as a base for chicken 

 feed, or for some other legitimate purpose; of inferior belladonna leaf 

 and stems (when low quality is correctly declared), etc., etc. The 

 final destiny of such importations should be ascertained by the state 

 inspectors after being released by the customs officials and out of the 

 jurisdiction of the Federal authorities, in order that it may be ascer- 

 tained what use is made of them. The chances are that the clove 

 stems and the ground olive pits finally serve as adulterants of spices 

 and drugs, and the inferior belladonna, cinchona, aconite and other 

 drugs finally reach the retail drug store labeled " superior quality 

 drugs," even bearing a false high-standard assay label under a 

 guarantee. 



The sub-standard clause should either be stricken out or it might 

 be changed to read as follows: " However, no drug defined in the 

 United States Pharmacopoeia or the National Formulary shall be 

 deemed adulterated under this provision if the standard of strength 

 or quality be plainly stated upon the package thereof, although the 

 standard or quality may differ from that determined by the tests laid 

 down in the United States Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary 

 provided, that such deviation from the official standard is not due to 

 foreign admixtures of any kind, and provided the label bear a state- 

 ment of compensatory correction for making official preparations 

 therefrom." As the law now reads there is nothing to prevent mixing 

 a standard or super-standard drug with some foreign material, thus 

 increasing the bulk very materially and yet conforming to the required 



