, 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 Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary, it differs
from the standard of strength, quality, or purity, as determined
by the test laid down in the United States Pharmacopoeia or
National Formulary official at the time of investigation;
_Provided_, that no drug defined in the United States
Pharmacopoeia 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
Pharmacopoeia 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, o