276 
PliarinaccHtical  Legislation. 
<  Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
(       .Iiiiiu,  1911. 
the  law  to  a  body  other  than  the  Legislature ;  that  the  makers  of 
the  pharmacopoeia  were  virtually  invested  with  leg'islative  functions 
in  contravention  of  the  Constitution,  Article  2,  Section i,  which 
provides  that  "  the  legislative  power  of  this  Commonwealth  shall 
be  vested  in  a  General  Assembly,  etc.  It  is  a  settled  axiom  that 
the  power  conferred  on  the  Legislature  to  make  laws  cannot  be 
delegated  by  that  department  to  any  other  body  or  authority." 
"  Where  the  sovereign  power  of  a  State  has  located  the  authority 
there  it  must  remain.  The  power  to  whose  judgment,  wisdom  and 
patriotism  this  high  prerogative  has  been  entrusted  cannot  relieve 
itself  of  the  responsibility  by  choosing  other  agencies  upon  which 
the  power  shall  be  devolved  nor  can  it  substitute  the  judgment, 
wisdom  and  patriotism  of  any  other  body  for  those  to  which  alone 
the  people  have  seen  fit  to  confide  this  sovereign  trust."  The  Court, 
however,  dismissed  this  contention,  holding  that  the  argument  was 
defective  considering  that  the  Legislature  adopted  a  standard 
already  established,  that  there  was  no  delegation  of  authority ;  that 
Act  not  meaning  future  standards,  but  that  recognized  as  the  stand- 
ard at  the  time  the  law  was  made.  The  latest  edition,  therefore, 
meant  not  those  to  be  in  the  future,  but  the  edition  then  in  force 
and  effect. 
This  Act  remained  the  law  until  the  Legislature  passed  the  Act 
of  May  8,  1909  in  force  and  effect  on  and  after  October  i,  of  that 
year.  In  the  meantime  the  National  Pure  Food  and  Drug  Act  of 
1906  had  been  passed.  Much  had  been  written  and  said  about  the 
injustice  of  such  acts  as  that  of  1897  where  the  standard  was  fixed 
by  the  several  books  specified  in  the  Act  from  which  no  variation 
could  or  would  be  permitted.  The  objection  was  not  made  without 
reason  and  undoubtedly  the  Legislature  was  influenced  by  the 
number  of  important  considerations  to  adopt  what  has  been  termed 
a  variation  provision  so  that  deviation  from  the  standard  is  now 
allowed  provided  the  fact  be  plainly  stated.  It  was  urged  that  an 
iron-clad  standard  was  un-American  in  that^  first,  it  would  stifle 
research,  restrict  progress  and  destroy  incentive  to  advancement : 
second,  however  far-sighted,  learned  and  skilful  were  the  makers  of 
the  standard,  they  had  neither  the  whole  knowledge  nor  the  last 
word — third,  that  the  trade  would  be  left  with  valuable  dead  stock 
and  in  conclusion,  that  the  object  of  the  law  was  to  give  what  you 
have  so  frequently  heard  called  "  a  square  deal."  Hence  it  is  that 
in  the  Pennsylvania  Act  no  official  drug  shall  be  deemed  to  be 
