217. Misbranding: of Axlne Plates. U. S. v. 19 Sets of a device called Axlne.
Default decree of condemnation and destruction. (F. D. C. No. 825. Sample
No. 72023-D.)
The labeling of this product bore false and misleading representations as indi-
cated hereinafter.
On or about November 9, 1939, the United States attorney for the Western
District of Missouri filed a libel against 19 sets of Axine Plates at Higginsville,
Mo., alleging that the article had been shipped in interstate commerce on or about
September 30, 1939, by W, Gordon Pervis from Tennille, Ga.; and charging that
it was misbranded.
Examination showed that the device consisted of two metal plates made of
copper and zinc, respectively, which were to be worn in the shoes of the user, a
plate in each shoe.
The article was alleged to be misbranded in that its labeling bore representations
that it would produce health and vigor by means of electricity in the human body;
would relieve the stiffness of old age and make one feel young again; would rid
the blood of uric acid; would be efficacious in the mitigation, treatment, and pre-
vention of high blood pressure, low blood pressure, headache, asthma, paralysis,
kidney trouble, rheumatism, diabetes, eczema, eold hands and feet, and poor
circulation; and would be efficacious "to draw the acid from the larynx gland
and thus stop excessive coughing of asthma," which were false and misleading
since the said article would not be efficacious for the said purposes.
It was alleged to be misbranded further in that its labeling represented that
uric acid forms in the stomach, that it forms as the result of eating food that
disagrees with the stomach, that the acid then filters through the blood and travels
through the blood as a very fine crystal; that the device consisted of a composition of
metals "which would act upon the human electricity and would make the human
electricity fast"; that the device would heat the blood about 2 degrees and thus
dissolve uric acid in the blood; that uric acid would pass through the blood into
the said device; that the cause of high blood pressure is the uric acid crystals
stopping in the arteries, hardening of the arteries, and enlarging the heart; that
the device would stimulate one's own electric current; that the electric current
would pass through the brain and dissolve and draw away clot on the brain; that
uric acid stiffens the prostate gland; that because of uric acid the prostate glands
stand open and will not "pan down"; that failure of the prostate glands to "pan
down" causes diabetes; that the device would produce heat by the metals' acting
as a battery on the human electricity and that the heat thus produced would
cause the prostate gland to "pan down" and relieve the patient entirely, which
representations were false and misleading.
On March 25,1940, no claimant having appeared, judgment of condemnation was
entered and it was ordered that the product be destroyed.