372  National  Food  and  Drugs  Act.       jAm; Jour;  1pt^rm- 
6  I      August,  1909. 
I  think  it  may  be  helpful  to  you,  to  indicate  briefly  some  of  the 
legal  points,  which,  from  the  experience  of  the  Department,  come  up 
almost  daily  under  this  law  in  the  conduct  of  a  drug  business. 
In  purchasing  your  drugs  from  the  wholesaler,  manufacturer, 
or  any  other  source,  you  should  require  the  person  or  firm  from 
whom  you  make  the  purchase  to  give  you  a  guaranty.  In  this 
connection  you  should  bear  in  mind  that  a  guaranty  is  of  no  pro- 
tection to  you  unless  given  to  you  by  the  person  from  whom  you 
purchase.  A  serial  number  guaranty  will  be  of  no  avail  to  you 
unless  it  represents  the  guaranty  of  the  person  from  whom  you 
purchase.  If  you  purchase  from  a  jobber  a  drug  bearing  the  serial 
number  of  the  manufacturer  who  sold  to  the  jobber,  that  guaranty 
will  avail  you  nothing,  because  the  law  says  that  the  guaranty  to  be 
of  any  protection  to  you  must  be  from  the  party  from  whom  you 
purchase.  In  this  instance,  then,  you  should  require  the  jobber  to 
give  you  a  guaranty. 
The  law  requires  every  package  or  bottle  containing  a  drug 
which  is,  in  whole  or  in  part,  alcohol,  morphine,  cocaine,  opium,  or 
certain  other  related  dangerous  or  habit-forming  drugs  mentioned 
in  the  Act,  to  bear  a  statement  thereon  of  the  quantity  and  proportion 
of  these  substances.  Now  you  will  observe  that  you  must  not  only 
state  the  name  of  any  one  or  more  of  these  substances  in  the 
preparation,  but  you  must  also  disclose  the  quantity  or  proportion 
present.  In  declaring  these  substances,  the  intent  of  the  law  is  that 
they  must  be  stated  in  common  commercial  terms,  not  under  names 
known  only  to  chemists  or  physicians.  For  instance,  alcohol  should 
be  declared  as  such  and  not  as  "  spiritus  rectificatus."  And,  as  I 
have  heretofore  stated,  you  cannot  escape  this  requirement  of  the 
law  by  omitting  to  put  labels  on  the  packages  or  bottles  containing 
these  substances.  I  may  say  that  this  precaution  will  not  ordinarily 
affect  the  retail  druggist,  since  he  rarely  engages  in  interstate  com- 
merce, but  if  he  should  do  so,  even  in  one  or  a  few  instances,  he 
will  do  well  to  observe  the  requirements  of  the  Act. 
The  law  denounces  as  "  misbranded  "  any  drug  the  label  or 
package  of  which  bears  a  statement,  design,  or  device  which  is  mis- 
leading, false,  or  deceptive  in  any  particular.  This  is  plain  language 
and  easily  understood,  and  all  that  it  requires  is  the  whole  truth. 
Extravagant  claims  for  curative  qualities  of  drugs  should  be  avoided. 
I  assume  you  all  know  that  the  Act  embraces  within  its  provi- 
sions any  substance  intended  for  cure,  mitigation,  or  prevention  of 
