Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1913. 
Correspondence. 
271 
National  Formulary  digestive  strength  of  1 :  3800,  it  had  plainly 
stated  upon  its  label  its  correct  and  claimed  digestive  power  of 
1 : 2000.  3.  It  was  found  by  the  chemists  of  the  Pharmaceutical 
Examining  Board  to  be  above  the  digestive  strength  claimed  upon 
the  label  and  was,  hence,  found  to  be  a  better  product  even  than  it 
was  held  out  to  be  by  Sharp  &  Dohme. 
This  Essence  of  Pepsin  case  was  brought  by  the  Pennsylvania 
Board  to  test  said  Board's  right  by  law  to  make  regulations  arbi- 
trarily established  by  itself  part  of  the  organic  law  of  the  state. 
Therefore,  this  question  is  one  of  great  importance  to  the  drug- 
trade  all  over  the  country,  as  there  exists  a  growing  tendency  for 
Federal  and  State  Boards,  whose  duty  it  is  merely  to  execute  laws 
passed  by  Congress  or  a  State  Legislature,  to  formulate  regula- 
tions and  endeavor  to  enforce  them  as  part  of  the  organic  law 
respectively  of  the  country  or  state.  The  Sharp  &  Dohme  Essence 
of  Pepsin  was  made  the  test  case,  but  it  has  been  difficult  to  get 
the  Pennsylvania  Board  to  bring  the  case  to  trial,  as  the  Board 
evidently  felt  it  had  no  strong  case  and  that  the  case  was  going 
to  be  contested  by  able  counsel  and  competent  witnesses.  As  it 
involved  a  broad  question  of  moment  to  the  entire  drug  trade  of 
the  land,  Sharp  &  Dohme  had  fully  intended  to  take  it  up  to  the 
Court  of  Appeals,  and  if  possible  to  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  in 
the  event  that  it  had  been  shown  that  the  case  was  one  of  inter- 
state commerce  instead  of  intrastate  commerce. 
The  case  came  up  for  trial  in  the  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer 
before  Judge  Audenried  in  Philadelphia  on  Thursday,  May  1st, 
and  was  argued  by  Assistant  State  Attorney  Maurer  for  the  Com- 
monwealth of  Pennsylvania,  representing  the  Pennsylvania  State 
Pharmacy  Examining  Board  and  by  Messrs.  Chas.  Biddle  and 
Henry  LaBarre  Jayne,  of  the  firm  of  Biddle,  Paul  &  Jayne,  of 
Philadelphia,  for  Sharp  &  Dohme.  The  witnesses  for  the  Board 
were  Messrs.  Rohrman,  of  the  Philadelphia  Drug  Exchange ; 
Christopher  Koch,  Vice-President  of  the  Pennsylvania  Examining 
Board;  Professor  C.  H.  La  Wall,  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy ;  L.  L.  Walton,  Secretary  of  the  Board,  and  H.  C.  Blair, 
of  Philadelphia.  The  witnesses  for  Sharp  &  Dohme  were  Dr.  A. 
R.  L.  Dohme,  President  of  that  corporation,  and  Dr.  Herman  En- 
gelhardt,  their  chief  chemist. 
After  the  bottle  of  Essence  of  Pepsin  had  been  brought  into 
the  case  and  Prof.  La  Wall  had  testified  as  to  what  was  the  U.  S.  P. 
