AFebruarr'yPf9OTm"}     Discussion  of  Pure  Food  and  Drug  Law.  95 
to  be  sold,  provided  it  carries  on  its  own  label  its  professed  standard,  and  is  of 
a  quality  conforming  thereto. 
The  second  is,  that  any  statement  made  with  regard  to  any  article  that  is 
sold  as  a  medicine  for  man  or  other  animal  shall  be  a  true  statement,  or,  in  the 
language  of  the  law,  shall  "  not  be  misleading." 
Both  these  underlying  principles  can  be  still  more  briefly  expressed  by  the 
words  "common  honesty,"  or,  applying  honest  methods  in  the  manufacture 
and  sale  of  medicines,  and  providing  penalties  for  those  who  violate  such 
methods. 
The  trouble  with  the  law  of  1897  is  that  its  provisions  are  so  drastic  and 
inelastic  and  so  limited  in  its  application,  that  it  never  has  been  and  never  will 
be  enforced.  It  is  not  only  lack  of  money  and  the  proper  officer  to  enforce  it 
that  is  to  be  held  responsible  for  this,  but  because  everybody  feels  that,  literally 
construed,  there  is  no  one,  not  even  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Pharmacy, 
who  literally  does  or  can  carry  out  its  provisions. 
U.S.  P.  and  N.F.  articles  alone  are  controlled  by  its  provisions,  and  a  drug  is 
defined  to  be  adulterated  when  it  does  not  come  up  to  the  U.S. P.  or  N.F. 
standard.  Now,  as  practical  experience  has  demonstrated  that  at  least  some 
U.S. P.  standards  are  faulty  and  need  correction,  and  cannot  fully  be  carried  out 
in  the  manufacture  of  pharmaceutical  preparations,  it  is  no  wonder  that  it  has 
been  a  dead  law  on  our  statute  books,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  those  who  study 
the  situation  favor  its  abolition,  and  a  proposition  more  in  line  with  that  which 
is  practicable  should  take  its  place. 
While  they  are,  perhaps,  not  conscious  of  it,  those  who  advocate  our  remain- 
ing under  the  law  of  1897  for  a  few  more  years  are,  in  fact,  advocating  that  we 
do  nothing  to  improve  the  condition,  under  which  pharmacists  are  laboring, 
within  the  State  for  several  more  years.  The  condition  is,  that  honest  phar- 
macists are  in  terror  because  perhaps  an  impracticable  law  may  be  enforced, 
and  are  struggling  against  competition  in  the  sale  of  preparations  made  by 
unscrupulous  competitors,  who  do  not  fear  the  law  because  they  feel  it  will 
never  be  enforced. 
After  some  additional  discussion,  relating  largely  to  minor  details, 
or  to  the  rules  and  regulations  that  have  been  promulgated  by  the 
persons  charged  with  the  enforcement  of  the  Federal  law,  the  fol- 
lowing preamble  and  set  of  resolutions  were  adopted  as  being  the 
sense  of  the  meeting,  and  referred  to  a  committee  consisting  of  one 
member  from  each  of  the  organizations  represented  at  the  confer- 
ence : — 
RESOLUTIONS  FAVORING  THE  ENACTMENT  OF  A  STATE  FOOD  AND  DRUG  LAW. 
Whereas  the  manufacture  or  the  sale  of  impure  or  adulterated  foods, 
drugs,  medicines  and  liquors  is  fraught  with  harm  to  the  community  and  is 
inimical  to  the  public  health,  and, 
Whereas  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  in  Congress  assembled,  have  enacted  a  law  "For  prevent- 
ing the  manufacture,  sale  or  transportation  of  adulterated  or  misbranded  or 
