Ogden Evening Standard | 1911-06-24 | Page 3 | Patent Medicines May Promise Cures

' k -uu tU PATENT MEDICINES ; MAY PROMISE CURES ' &' A decision of considerable intorest M was rendered in the supreme court of tho United States recently in inter-' prcting the pure food and drug act of 191G. In tho case before the court it anpoarod that a Kansas City physi-clan physi-clan was indicted in a fcdoral court on a charge, of having- violated the law in that, doing business under tho name of a company, she shipped from one state to another certain articles designated as "cancorino tablets," the labels on which Implied that they were effective In bringing about the cure of cancer. It was alleged In the indictment indict-ment that the statements thus made wero falno. The indictment' was quashed on tho ground that the In hlbltions in the statute were restricted' to the prevention of misstatements about the Ingredients of drugs, and did not cover misstatements about the curative nropertles of medicines. The action of the court below was sustained sus-tained by tho supremo court, which hold by a maorlty that provided there was no misstatement on the bottle or package as to its contents, the goods may be sold without Infringing tho law In the view of the court the provision pro-vision of the statute against misbranding misbrand-ing is aimed not at nil possible falso statements, but onlv such as determine deter-mine the Identity of "the article, possibly possi-bly including Its strength, quality an1 purity, and that a statement "shown to bo false only in its commendatory and prophetic aspect" when the contents con-tents are undeacribed and unknown does not come within the terms of the act. Bradatreet's.