REPORT OF THE CHEMIST. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, SIR: I submit herewith the report of the work of the Bureau of Chemistry for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1918. Respectfully, Hon. D. F. HOUSTON, Secretary of Agriculture. CARL L. ALSBERG, Chief. The year has been one of readjustment. The urgent demands of the various, war agencies, the scarcity of technically trained men, as well as the new work authorized by the Food Production Act, made it necessary to close up such projects as have no immediate bearing on the prosecution of the war as rapidly as they could be brought to such a stage that the time, the effort, and the money expended upon them would not be lost. The scientists thus liberated have been assigned to work for the various war agencies or else have been used to fill the gaps in the bureau's force engaged in the enforcement of the Food and Drugs Act. Greater vigilance than ever before has been necessary in the administration of this statute, since the general changes in the organization of the trade, as well as the scarcity or high price of many materials, have proved a great temptation to sophistication. Hence it has been necessary to make every effort to keep the bureau's regulatory force intact, though this has not been possible, even approximately. The rapidity of the turnover of the personnel is shown by the fact that on April 5, 1918, of a total force. of less than 650 employees of all kinds more than 270 had been employed in the bureau for one year or less. There were in addition a great number of vacancies. In spite of these handicaps and in spite of the very large demands upon the bureau made by the war agencies, the work of the bureau shows no great falling off. Eight hundred and one, food and drug cases were sent to the Solicitor for consideration with a view to prosecution—a somewhat larger number than in the previous year. This was due in the main to the zeal of the bureau's field force. During the year the organization of this force was modified, in that the three districts were subdivided into stations, the chemists as well as the inspectors at each station being put under the direction of a single official, who in turn is responsible to the chief of the district. The results have amply demonstrated the wisdom of this plan. Concerning the research activities during the year the bureau prepared or cooperated in the preparation of 15 Department Bulletins, 1 Farmers' Bulletin, 1 Yearbook article, and 1 circular of the 97335°- -AGR 1918- -14 201 Office of the Secretary. In addition, the results of more than 60 investigations were made public and those of about 30 others are in press. The experimental work upon a number of other investigations has been completed. The bureau has endeavored to meet, or even to anticipate, the needs of the various war agencies. Every single request for assistance has been met, so far as it has lain in the bureau's power. Indeed, more offers of assistance have been made by the bureau than the war agencies have found it possible to accept. In consequence, the war work of the bureau has been most diverse and there is hardly a war agency with which the bureau has not cooperated. Much time has been given by members of the bureau to service upon important war committees, to the furnishing or gathering of technical information requested in connection with war matters, and to acting as consultants. The technical war work of the bureau has ranged from the analysis of the garbage of the cantonments to the supervision of chemical plants manufacturing war materials. The bureau has not been intrusted with the responsibility for any one single large chemical war undertaking, but it has assisted in innumerable ways whenever opportunity presented. Many of the details of such war work are given in the following pages. Some of it is of too confidential a nature to mention. Under the provisions of the Food Production Act of August 10, 1917, enacted by Congress for the purpose of stimulating food production during the war, the work of the bureau was shaped in the following directions: The prevention of spoilage and waste in the handling of poultry and eggs; the stimulation of the production of sea food; the stimulation of the consumption of fish and the prevention of spoilage in the transportation of fish to market; the prevention of dust explosions and fires in mills, elevators, and thrashing machines in order to conserve grain; the stimulation of the industry of dehydrating fruits, vegetables, and fish in order to conserve perishables. The details of this work will be found in the following pages, under the general headings of conservation, demonstration, and technological investigations. ** * During the past few years the wisdom of the legislation authorizing the bureau to "furnish * samples of pure sugars, naval stores, microscopical specimens, and other products" has been demonstrated. The interruption of imports created a famine in rare and unusual chemicals necessary in chemical and medical research and practice. In a number of instances the bureau has been able, acting under the authority above quoted, to assist by supplying such rare materials as certain sugars, dyes, amino-acids, and organic chemicals. The service thus rendered has not been extensive. It should, however, be extended, since there is perhaps nothing more important that a Government agency might do to assist in the establishment of a strong, self-reliant chemical industry. ENFORCEMENT OF THE FOOD AND DRUGS ACT. While the changes in the trade and the scarcity and high price of raw materials have tended to revive flagrant types of adulteration and misbranding that have been almost unknown for a decade, the spirit pervading the country has been such that the bureau, with its collaborating State and municipal officials, and in some instances with the cooperation of the United States Food Administration, has been able to get results in the suppression of such abuses very much more speedily than would be possible in normal times. The interest of the Food Administration in certain of these matters has been due to the fact that practices which lead to a violation of the Food and Drugs Act also lead to waste, either in food or in basic materials, such as tin, steel, and coal, or in transportation facilities. The outstanding features, therefore, of the year's work in the enforcement of the Food and Drugs Act have been the recurrence of practices long since discarded as objectionable and more effective cooperation with other officials. To these may be added the fundamental changes in the nature of the food and drug materials offered for import because of Government control of shipping. In two cases the courts have handed down decisions of importance in interpretation of the law. In the first of these, published in Notice of Judgment 6142, the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the judgment of conviction in the lower court against the Union Dairy Co. for a shipment of milk from Troy, Ill., to itself at St. Louis, Mo., the charge being that the milk was watered, and also filthy, putrid, and decomposed. The Union Dairy Co. contended that it was shipping the milk from a receiving station in Illinois to itself in Missouri, there to be treated, impurities removed, and the milk standardized; that while in transit it was not an article of food as defined by the Food and Drugs Act and did not become such an article of food until after treatment. The Circuit Court of Appeals held that it would be an unjustifiable construction of the act to make liability turn upon a difference in identity of consignor and consignee or the secret intent with which a shipper made the shipment; that it was also unnecessary for the court to receive evidence to establish the fact that the addition of water to milk injuriously affected the quality or strength of the milk. In the other case, as reported in Notice of Judgment 6151, the United States Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the District Court sustaining a demurrer to the indictment alleging an article labeled in part "Compound Ess Grape" to have been adulterated and misbranded. The article did not contain any product of the grape, and the United States Supreme Court held "to call it compound essence of grape' certainly did not suggest a mere imitation, but on the contrary falsely indicated that it contained something derived from grapes." Mr. Justice McReynolds delivered the opinion of the court and made the comment, "The statute enjoins truth; this label exhales deceit." DOMESTIC FOODS AND DRUGS. Six hundred and thirty-one recommendations for criminal prosecution and 460 recommendations for seizure were made through the Office of the Solicitor to the Department of Justice. Reports of the termination in the courts of 807 cases were received by the department. Of these, 149 represent cases alleging false and fraudulent labeling of medicines or misbranding of drugs, in all of which the courts found for the Government; and 147 represent cases alleging adulteration or misbranding of stock feeds, in all of which save two the courts found for the Government. Ninety-five of the 807 cases were reported to the United States district attorney by collaborating officials of the various States and the District of Columbia. The accompanying table gives the distribution of the official samples examined by the various field stations. In addition thousands of shipments were examined in the field, hundreds of which involved a preliminary laboratory examination not reported in the table. Report of field stations for year ended June 30, 1918. Grand total. 801 108 23,261 267 6, 008 4,660 1,282 46, 515 4,478 3,754 331 7,393 27,922 2,732 4, 103 The service and regulatory announcements published during the year contained 46 opinions and 1,250 notices of judgment. The following six food inspection decisions were issued: No. 171. Macaroni, Spaghetti, Vermicelli, Flour Macaroni, Flour No. 172. Condiments other than Vinegars and Salt. No. 173. Canned Vegetables, Canned Peas, and Canned Pea Grades. No. 175. Colors in Food. No. 176. Evaporated Apples. Of these, all but No. 175 are based upon recommendations of the Joint Committee on Definitions and Standards. The control of shipments of polluted or spoiled food products has continued a major project of the bureau. In controlling and preventing the shipment of decomposed shell eggs the bureau has cooperated with the United States Food Administration and with the State and municipal food officials in developing a plan to prevent the shipment of uncandled eggs. This has resulted in the speedier consignment of eggs to market, with a consequent prevention of spoilage and saving of shipping space formerly occupied by inedible eggs. It is reported that never before have the eggs arriving in the market been of so uniformly high quality. Continued attention has been given to the sanitary supervision of the milk supplies at certain points receiving milk in interstate or foreign commerce. At the same time steps have been taken in cooperation with the local officials to improve the very poor sanitary conditions in some of the milk condensaries. The standardizing of milk for condensing purposes has been investigated. A large amount of work in connection with the examination of samples of condensed milk has been performed for the information of the Quartermaster's Department of the Army, the United States Food Administration, and the allied Governments. With a view to preventing the shipment of polluted clams by the methods which have been largely successful in preventing the shipment of oysters from polluted beds, a study of the clam industry has been begun. The work begun in other years to prevent the packing of decomposed tomato stock has been continued and extended, and steps have been taken, in cooperation with local officials and with the manufacturers themselves, to improve the sanitary conditions of the packing plants. The adulteration of canned tomatoes with added water has also received much attention. The extensive use of corn meal and corn flour as a substitute for wheat flour has made it necessary to give attention to shipments of spoiled corn meal which have deteriorated, owing to unfavorable conditions of manufacture, storage, or shipment. As already indicated, scarcity of supplies and high prices have made it necessary to give much attention to types of food products which have not in recent years been especially subject to sophistication. For example, owing to the embargo upon olive oil, much socalled olive oil actually consisting wholly or very largely of cottonseed oil or corn oil has found its way upon the market. Drastic action in the way of seizure and criminal prosecution has been necessary to correct this type of violation. The shortage in the apple crop during the past two years has occasioned the use of distilled vinegar as an adulterant, and it has been necessary, therefore, to give especial attention to shipments of vinegar. The high price of eggs has brought forth a flood of so-called egg substitutes. As a general rule, these preparations consist essentially of a mixture of starch and baking powder, colored yellow, with or without added casein. They have neither the food value nor the effect of eggs in cooking or baking, and are sold under labels which bear extravagant claims as to their culinary value and at prices far in excess of their intrinsic worth. A study has been made of such egg substitutes, and action inaugurated. The cessation of importations of gelatin led to the sale as edible gelatin of glue contaminated with mercury or zinc, a practice against which action was begun last year, and continued with success this year. Much attention has been given to the adulteration of oats with barley, weed seeds, and screenings, and seizures and criminal prosecutions in such cases have been instituted. |