A  January,  i909m'}  Act  °f  l848'  Importation  Regulations.  25 
to  2936  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  which  in  part  had  their  origin  in 
the  Customs  Act  of  June  26,  1848. 
These  regulations,  if  properly  applied  and  carried  out,  are  equally 
as  effective  to  prevent  the  importation  of  adulterated  or  otherwise 
inferior  products  or  medicinal  preparations  as  is  the  Food  and  Drugs 
Act.  In  fact  they  are  even  more  stringent  than  the  latter,  inasmuch 
as  they  forbid  the  importation  of  "  any  drugs,  medicines,  medicinal 
preparations,  whether  chemical  or  otherwise,  found,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  examiner,  to  be  so  far  adulterated  or  in  any  manner  deteriorated 
as  to  render  them  inferior  in  strength  and  purity  to  the  standards 
established  by  the  United  States,  Edinburgh,  London,  French  and 
German  Pharmacopoeias  and  Dispensatories."  Since  the  enactment 
of  the  Food  and  Drugs  Act,  and  the  establishment  of  the  Food  and 
Drugs  Inspection  Laboratory  in  charge  of  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, importers  have  endeavored  to  comply  with  the  requirements 
of  that  law,  especially  with  Section  7,  and  when  the  standards  of 
strength,  quality  or  purity  varied  from  that  laid  down  in  the  United 
States  Pharmacopoeia  the  degree  of  strength  and  purity  was  stated 
on  the  container,  and  the  products  were  thus  accepted  and  passed 
by  the  Department  6f  Agriculture.  In  some  instances,  however,  the 
appraiser,  or  rather  the  examiner  of  drugs  in  the  Customs  Service, 
has  rejected,  under  the  authority  of  Section  2935  of  the  R.  S.  1848 
above  referred  to,  the  same  merchandise  that  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  had  passed,  when  it  did  not  meet  the  requirements  of 
the  Customs  Regulations.  This  it  was  his  duty  to  do,  but  this  action, 
of  course,  has  led  to  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  the  importers  and 
to  difficulties  with  them. 
*  The  requirements  of  Sections  2933  to  2936  of  the  R.  S.,  and  espe- 
cially of  Section  2935,  being  too  general  and  sweeping  to  be  carried 
into  effect,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  found  it  necessary  to  estab- 
lish regulations  for  the  guidance  of  the  customs  examiners,  and 
therefore  published  in  the  Customs  Regulations  of  1899,  Section 
1288,  a  list  of  some  of  the  principal  drugs  to  be  entitled  to  entry  if 
they  met  the  requirements,  as  follows : 
Aloes,  when  affording  80  per  cent,  of  pure  aloetic  extract. 
'  Asafetida,  when  affording  50  per  cent,  of  its  peculiar  bitter  resin  and  3  per 
cent  of  volatile  oil. 
Bark  Cinchona,  whether  Peruvian,  Calisaya,  Alicante,  Carthagena,  Maracaibo, 
Santa  Martha,  Bogota,  or  under  whatever  name  or  from  whatever  place, 
when  affording  1  per  cent,  pure  quinine. 
