706 
Editorial. 
[Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
November,  19 19. 
very  frequently  in  the  breach.  In  this  paragraph,  in  assuming 
authority  to  interpret  the  propriety  of  medical  customs  and  prac- 
tices, the  Department  is  treading  upon  dangerous  ground  in  which, 
for  the  welfare  of  the  people,  it  would  be  well  not  to  be  too 
aggressive. 
In  the  establishing  in  this  portion  of  the  regulations  definitions 
and  standards  for  flavoring  extracts,  the  Bureau  of  Internal  Rev- 
enue is  taking  another  advanced  step  and  one  which,  when  the  Food 
and  Drugs  Act  was  under  consideration,  Congress  declined  to  sanc- 
tion. The  attitude  of  Congress  at  that  time  was  that  the  duty  of  a 
Department  of  the  Government  was  administrative,  to  enforce  the 
laws,  and  not  to  make  them ;  that  a  department  should  not  be  given 
the  authority  to  make  the  standards  for  the  articles  of  food  and 
drug  consumption  which  it  was  to  be  entrusted  to  pass  upon  in  its 
enforcement  of  the  law ;  that  it  should  not  be  empowered  thus  to 
act  in  the  dual  capacity  of  law  maker  and  enforcer.  It  is  an  open 
question  whether  public  opinion  and  legislative  sentiment  have  since 
changed  to  warrant  now  the  departure  from  that  attitude. 
A  flavoring  extract  is  defined  "  as  a  solution,  in  ethyl  alcohol  of 
proper  strength,  of  the  sapid  and  odorous  principles  derived  from 
an  aromatic  plant,  with  or  without  its  coloring  matter,  and  conforms 
in  name  to  the  plant  used  in  its  preparation. "  It  is  to  be  observed 
that  if  any  coloring  is  used  in  these  preparations  it  must  be  the 
natural  coloring  matter  of  the  plant  named.  This  eliminates  the 
use  in  these  of  artificial  coloring  of  any  kind  or  character.  Stand- 
ards are  named  for  twenty-three  flavoring  extracts,  a  differentiation 
being  made  between  extracts  of  cassia  and  cinnamon  and  between 
anise  and  star  anise  extracts.  Tincture  of  ginger  is  held  to  be  a 
"  medicinal  preparation  "  and  not  a  flavoring  extract  and  must  be 
made  according  to  the  U.  S.  P.  and  no  standard  is  given  for  ginger 
extract. 
The  enormity  of  the  task  that  has  been  placed  upon  the  Internal 
Revenue  to  enforce  the  recently  enacted  Narcotic  and  Prohibition 
'Laws,  which  are  more  police  measures  than  they  are  treasury  enact- 
ments, calls  for  our  sympathy  and  cooperation  and  our  criticisms  are 
intended  as  constructive  aids.  It  is  likewise  the  duty  of  the  medical 
and  pharmaceutical  professions  to  assist  faithfully,  not  only  in  the 
discharge  of  the  responsibility  placed  upon  them  by  these  enact- 
ments, but  also  to  sustain  and  uphold  the  spirit  of  these  laws  and  to 
