I20  Wholesale  Dnig-gists'  Association.     { ^""naX  mi."""* 
and  "  adulterated  are  used.  These  words  are  employed  daily  in 
official  utterance,  rendered  in  a  way  which  has  robbed  them  of  their 
original  significance.  The  deliberately  corrupted  product  of  the 
fraud  and  the  cheat  when  discovered  is  called  "adulterated,"  and  the 
innocent  material  which,  although  absolutely  unsophisticated  and 
intrinsically  of  the  highest  merit,  happens  to  exhibit  some  slight 
defect  in  respect  of  a  rigidly  fixed  standard,  is  condemned  by  ex- 
actly the  same  formula ;  it  is  "  adulterated."  The  element  of  moral 
turpitude  appears  to  have  been  eliminated  and  must  no  longer,  with- 
out proof,  be  assumed  to  be  present  where  cases  of  adulteration  are 
reported.  At  a  later  meeting  the  Association  took  action  on  this 
condition  as  follows :  Resolved,  That  the  incoming  Committee  on 
Legislation  be  instructed  to  take  such  steps  as  will  bring  about,  at  an 
early  date,  the  abolishment  of  the  improper  use  of  the  words  adul- 
teration "  and  "  adulterated  "  in  the  publications  of  the  Board  of 
Food  and  Drug  Inspection,  as  mentioned  at  length  in  the  Com- 
mittee's report.  In  this  connection  Mr.  Plant  brought  up  a  point 
which  is  very  important :  he  called  the  attention  of  the  Association 
to  the  fact  that  the  inspection  to  which  goods  are  subjected  at  the 
various  points  of  entry  are  anything  but  uniform.  He  mentioned 
a  case  where  asafetida  bought  in  Hamburg  and  sold  to  a  house  in 
Philadelphia  was  entered  at  the  port  of  Cleveland,  and -stated  that 
other  drugs  were  being  entered  at  such  points  as  Minneapolis, 
Cleveland,  Ogdensburg,  Albany,  etc.,  where  there  were  no  thor- 
oughly organized  Bureaus,  equipped  to  test  the  quality  of  the 
drugs,  and  that  in  this  way  inferior  drugs  obtained  admission  to 
the  country  in  a  way  that  could  not  be  effected  were  they  entered 
at  some  of  the  regular  ports  of  entry.  He  advised  that  the  mem- 
bers use  their  efiforts  to  abolish  this  objectionable  condition  of 
afifairs.  Mr.  Plant  also  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Association 
the  present  method  of  printing  the  court  decisions  in  the  case  of 
prosecutions  brought  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  As  they 
are  printed  they  are  sent  broadcast  over  the  country,  and  it  is 
necessary  often  to  read  the  leaflet  from  beginning  to  end  before  the 
reader  finds  out  whether  the  defendant  is  innocent  or  guilty.  Many 
people  read  but  the  first  few  lines  and  are  left  with  a  false  impres- 
sion that  the  defendant  has  committed  a  crime,  whereas  often  the 
last  few  lines  would  prove  that  he  was  absolutely  innocent.  Many 
delegates  recognized  the  truth  of  this  contention,  and  a  resolution 
was  passed  requesting  the  Committee  on  Legislation  to  look  into  the 
