Third.—Take no medicine internally without a physician's advice.
Throughout this chapter the word "patent medicine" will be used in its widely accepted form, in the everyday sense, without regard to its legal definition, and will be held to include any of the above-mentioned classes, unless a direct statement is made to the contrary.
In Germany the contents of patent medicines are commonly published, and in this country, notably in Massachusetts, the State Boards of Health are analyzing these preparations, and making public their findings. In North Dakota a law has been passed which requires that a proprietary medicine containing over five per cent of alcohol, or any one of a number of specified drugs, be labeled accordingly.
PURE FOOD BILL.—A far-reaching and important step, in the movement for reform of patent medicines and for the protection of the public, has now been taken by the United States Government. On June 30, 1906, an act was approved forbidding the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated, misbranded, or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, or liquors. This act regulates interstate commerce in these articles, and went into effect January 1, 1907. Section 7 of this act states:
"That for the purposes of this Act an article shall be deemed to be adulterated: in case of drugs:
"First. If, when a drug is sold under or by a name recognized in the United States Pharmacopœia or National Formulary, it differs from the standard of strength, quality, or purity, as determined by the test laid down in the United States Pharmacopœia or National Formulary official at the time of investigation; Provided, that no drug defined in the United States Pharmacopœia or National Formulary shall be deemed to be adulterated under this provision if the standard of strength, quality, or purity be plainly stated upon the bottle, box or other container thereof although the standard may differ from that determined by the test laid down in the United States Pharmacopœia or National Formulary.
"Second. If its strength or purity fall below the professed standard or quality under which it is sold."
Section 8 states that a drug shall be deemed misbranded:
"First. If it be an imitation of or offered for sale under the name of another article.
"Second. If it (the package, bottle or box) fails to bear a statement on the label of the quantity or proportion of any alcohol, morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, alpha or beta eucaine, chloroform, cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilid, or any derivative or preparation of any such substances contained therein."