6  Decision  on  Tincture  of  Ginger.      {A January ,Pi92im' 
with  non-beverage  alcohol,  but  that  the  distribution  and  use  of 
these  must  be  under  the  same  regulations  as  intoxicating  liquors. 
In  T.  D.  3092,  the  officials  have  gone  one  step  further  in 
assuming  that  they  had  the  authority  to  modify  a  formula  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia  and  to  promulgate  another  formula  as  a  standard. 
We  believe  that  this  a  pure  assumption  and  entirely  without  foun- 
dation of  law.  In  the  past,  Congress  has  consistently  denied  to 
the  enforcement  officials  the  right  to  make  standards  and  we  fail  to 
note  anywhere  in  the  Volstead  Act  that  any  such  authority  is  vested 
in  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue.  Moreover,  Congress,  in 
the  Federal  Food  and  Drugs  Act,  made  the  standards  and  formulas 
of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  and  the  National  Formulary  the  legal 
standards  for  drugs  and  medicines  and  we  do  not  concede  that  the 
Volstead  Act  or  any  other  enactment  has  repealed  this  or  placed 
it  within  the  power  of  any  department  of  the  Government  to  either 
modify  or  nullify  any  of  the  provisions  of  that  Act. 
It  becomes  a  matter  of  rather  serious  import  when  an  official 
assumes  that  he  can  by  edict  undermine  and  destroy  the  authority 
of  the  Pharmacopoeia  and  set  aside  any  of  its  formulas.  In  this 
promulgation  the  Treasury  Department  is  advising  an  infraction 
of  the  Federal  Food  and  Drugs  Act  under  which  tincture  of  ginger 
entering  interstate  commerce  must  comply  with  the  standard  of 
strength  and  quality  laid  down  in  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia 
and  in  following  the  provisions  of  this  Treasury  decision  any  per- 
son does  so  at  his  peril  and  doubtless  could  be  prosecuted  for  violat- 
ing the  Act  of  June  30,  1906. 
Since  the  pharmacopceial  revision  of  1880,  tincture  of  ginger 
has  been  maintained  at  a  20  per  cent,  drug  strength  and  evidently 
this,  in  the  opinion  of  the  medical  and  pharmaceutical  specialists 
composing  the  committees  of  revision  that  successively  passed  upon 
this  question,  was  the  correct  strength  for  a  medicinal  preparation. 
The  Pharmacopoeia  is  concerned  solely  with  standards  for  medi- 
cines and  its  tincture  of  ginger  is  not  intended  as  a  culinary  flavor 
or  for  any  other  purpose  than  medicinal. 
If  there  are  any  reasons  whatever  why  the  formula  for  tincture 
of  ginger  should  be  changed  after  forty  years'  standing,  such  reasons 
should  be  presented  to  the  committee  of  revision  and  the  standard 
