A januTry  Pi9o5m' }      Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy.  49 
"  Most  of  the  books  cited  as  standards  have  been  long  obsolete, 
and  the  rulings  under  the  law  of  1848  were  often  made  in  favor  of 
the  importer  or  Government  according  as  one  or  the  other  could 
present  the  greatest  number  of  books  supporting  their  contention,  a 
manner  of  procedure  not  always  tending  to  the  fulfilment  of  the 
spirit  of  the  law. 
"  When  the  Food  and  Drugs  Act  was  passed  provision  was  made 
for  the  control  of  importations  on  the  same  basis  with  domestic 
foods  and  drugs  and  in  the  summer  subsequent  to  the  passage  of 
the  Act,  the  matter  was  again  taken  up  and  adequate  regulations 
formed  to  govern  the  enforcement  of  the  Food  and  Drugs  Act  in 
regard  to  importations.  However,  it  afterwards  transpired  when 
the  law  went  into  effect  that  in  framing  the  Food  and  Drugs  Act, 
one  fatal  mistake  had  been  made.  Through  some  oversight  no  clause 
had  been  inserted  repealing  the  law  of  1848,  therefore  importations 
are  still  being  governed  by  this  obsolete  law. 
"  At  the  N.  W.  D.  A.  convention  resolutions  were  passed,  that 
the  association  take  such  steps  as  were  in  its  power  towards  securing 
the  repeal  of  the  law  of  1848." 
Thomas  F.  Main,  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Standards  and 
Tests  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  and  National  Formulary,  of  the 
National  Wholesale  Druggists'  Association,  sent  the  following 
communication : 
"  Our  Committee  on  Standards  and  Tests  in  its  report  to  the  last 
meeting  of  the  National  Wholesale  Druggists'  iVssociation  expressed 
itself  as  follows : 
" '  The  Treasury  Department,  which  controls  imports,  is  now 
bound  by  the  law  of  1848,  which  in  the  opinion  of  your  committee 
should  be  amended  so  as  to  allow  the  importation  of  drugs  that 
differ  from  the  U.  S.  P.  standards,  when  they  are  plainly  marked  to 
show  their  differences  from  such  standards,  and  under  a  suitable 
guarantee  that  they  will  be  used  or  sold  only  for  manufacturing  pur- 
poses, and  we  recommend  that  the  incoming  Committee  on  Legisla- 
tion be  requested  to  take  this  matter  into  consideration  with  a  view 
of  securing  a  proper  amendment  of  the  law.' 
.  iC  In  the  discussion  that  followed  the  reading  of  our  report  it 
appeared  to  be  established  that  the  Pure  Food  and  Drugs  Act  of 
1906  was  intended  to  govern  the  importation  of  the  drugs  into  as 
well  as  the  sale  of  drugs  in  the  United  States,  and  that  the  provision 
'  no  drug  defined  in  the  U.  S.  P.  shall  be  deemed  to  be  adulterated 
