94  Discussion  of  Pure  Food  and  Drug  Law.     { February a9ao7m' 
advisability  of  such  changes  as  will  make  the  law  protect  both  the  people  who 
are  the  consumers,  and  who  might  be  imposed  upon,  and  the  retailer  who 
unknowingly  violates  the  law  by  selling  the  adulterated  articles. 
I  also  suggest  .the  advisability  of  imaking  all  pure  food  legislation  conform 
as  nearly  as  possible  to  the  Federal  laws  upon  the  same  subject. 
Following  the  reading  of  this  extract,  Mr.  Cliffe  referred  to  it  as 
additional  evidence  of  the  desirability,  or  the  evident  need  for  con- 
servative and  rational  legislation  along  the  very  lines  for  which  the 
conference  had  been  called. 
Mr.  Wilbert  then  read  the  preamble  and  set  of  resolutions  that 
had  been  prepared  by  the  Committee  of  the  Philadelphia  Branch 
of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  which  was  followed  by 
an  animated  discussion,  lasting  for  upwards  of  three  hours,  resulting 
finally  in  the  practically  unanimous  endorsement  of  the  preamble  and 
all  of  the  essential  features  of  the  resolutions  as  originally  presented. 
Communications  received  from  pharmacists  in  the  western  portion 
of  the  State  indicated  that  they  were  prepared  to  plead  for  the 
practical  enforcement  of  the  existing  law,  popularly  known  as  "  the 
act  of  1897."  In  this  plea  they  were  joined  by  a  number  of  phar- 
macists from  the  eastern  section,  particularly  from  Philadelphia, 
until  it  was  shown  that  this  act  was  in  many  respects  inadequate  to 
protect  either  the  public  or  the  retail  pharmacist,  and  was  practi- 
cally impossible  to  live  up  to  in  the  provisions  that  it  did  contain. 
While  it  is  true  that  this  act  was  among  the  first  to  recognize 
"The  latest  edition  of  the  *  National  Formulary'  or  the  '  Pharma- 
copoeia of  the  United  States'  regarding  quality  or  impurity,"  it  was 
also  pointed  out  that  if  rigidly  enforced  it  would  effectually  prevent 
progress  or  necessary  changes  in  connection  with  any  of  the  medica- 
ments that  were  included  in  the  several  books  enumerated.  It  was 
further  shown  that  despite  the  fact  that  this  law  had  been  in  force 
for  nearly  ten  years,  and  was  being  either  willfully  or  innocently 
disobeyed  by  practically  every  pharmacist  in  the  State,  but  two 
prosecutions  had  been  made  in  all  that  time. 
In  summing  up  the  reasons  why  the  law  of  1897  should  be  super- 
seded by  a  new  one  embodying  the  fundamental  principles  of  the 
Pure  Food  and  Drugs  Law,  Mr.  Mahlon  N.  Kline  spoke  as  follows: 
The  fundamental  principles  underlying  the  Federal  Pure  Food  and  Drugs 
Act  are  two.  First,  that  every  article  sold  as  a  medicine  and  labeled  U.S. P.  or 
N.F.  shall  conform  to  the  standard  laid  down  in  these  authorities,  and  that 
every  article  differing  from  the  U.S. P.  or  N.F.  standards  shall  still  be  permitted 
