30 POWDERED VEGETABLE DRUGS 



package, or if the package fail to bear a statement on the label of the quantity or 

 proportion of any alcohol, morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, alpha or beta eucaine, 

 chloroform, cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide, or any derivative or 

 preparation of any such substances contained therein. 



In August, 1912, Congress adopted a measure which is a most impor- 

 tant addition to the act of June 30, 1906, and which reads as follows: 



"An article shall be deemed misbranded if its package or label shall bear or 

 contain any statement, design or device regarding the curative or therapeutic 

 effects of such article or any of the ingredients therein, which is false and 

 fraudulent." 



This law is especially directed against proprietary remedies and so- 

 called patent remedies. In addition to the Service and Regulatory 

 Announcements of the Bureau, the Department of Agriculture has 

 from time to time issued rulings and interpretations of the food and 

 drugs act which should be consulted by those interested. The Depart- 

 ment has also issued legal definitions or standardized descriptions of 

 food articles, drugs and spices, which have been quite generally adopted 

 as standards by the several states in the administration of the state 

 food and drugs laws. 



The Federal Pure Food and Drugs act is administered by the 

 Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, Washington, 

 D. C Appointment to any position in the Bureau is under the United 

 States civil service rules and regulations'; and the educational and 

 special training requirements for this department of the government 

 service are unusually high. Those in the laboratory division must, as 

 a rule, hold university degrees, or the educational equivalent thereof, 

 must have done graduate work, and must have specialized along the 

 lines of the work to be done. Examinations for vacancies to be filled, 

 are held from time to time, throughout the United States, and to which 

 all citizens are eligible, provided they can meet the educational and 

 other requirements. 



The United States Treasury Department cooperates with the 

 Department of Agriculture in the enforcement of the pure food and 

 drugs act, but this cooperation is rather loose. The treasury depart- 

 ment is primarily interested in the proper fixing of the tariff and reve- 

 nue schedules, and the work done in the analytical laboratories of this 

 department pertains to questions of tariff rates, rather than purity 

 and quality. 



There is also a certain cooperation between the Bureau of Chemis- 

 try and the Bureau of Animal Industry, the latter giving the major at- 

 tention to animal food products, meat inspection, etc. Even here 

 the cooperation is not as close nor as harmonious as it should be. 



