NOTICE  OF JUDGMENT  NO. 2091,
(Given pursuant to section 4 of the Food and Drugs Act.)
ALLEGED ADULTERATION AND  MISBRANDING  OF POWDERED
BELLADONNA LEAVES.
On May 2, 1911, the United States Attorney for the Northern Dis- 
trict of Illinois, acting upon a report by the Secretary of Agriculture, 
filed in the District Court of the United States for said district an 
information against the Murray & Nickell Manufacturing Co., a cor- 
poration, Chicago, III., alleging shipment by said company, in viola- 
tion of the Food and Drugs Act, on October 4, 1909, from the State 
of Illinois into the State of California of a quantity of powdered 
belladonna leaves which were adulterated and misbranded. The 
product was labeled: "One Pound Powdered Belladonna Leaves 
Poison Belladonnae Folia Guaranteed under the Food & Drugs Act 
June 30, 1906. Serial No. 1859 Assay .30 Murray & Nickell Mfg. 
Co., Drug Importers Millers Chicago."
Analysis of a sample of the product by the Bureau of Chemistry of 
this Department showed the following results: Mydriatic alkaloids, 
(a) 0.198 per cent; (b) 0.194 per cent; (c) 0.168 per cent; ash, 21.21 
per cent and 21.38 per cent; water-insoluble ash, 16.42 per cent; 
acid-insoluble ash, 8.54 per cent. Adulteration of the product was 
alleged in the information for the reason that it was sold by a name 
recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia, and differed from 
the standard of strength as determined by the test laid down in said 
Pharmacopoeia official at the time of shipment, in that the standard 
of strength in mydriatic alkaloids determined and laid down by said 
Pharmacopoeia for the product required that it should contain not 
less than 0.3 per cent of such mydriatic alkaloids, whereas it con- 
tained less than 0.3 per cent of mydriatic alkaloids, to wit, 0.198 per 
cent of such mydriatic alkaloids, and the standard of purity of the 
product was not stated upon the containers thereof. Misbranding 
was alleged for the reason that the product bore the label set forth 
above, which said label was a statement, design, and device regarding 
the product and the ingredients and substances contained therein
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which was false and misleading, in that the label purported to state 
that the product, to wit, powdered belladonna leaves, assayed 0.30 
per cent of mydriatic alkaloids, whereas, in truth and in fact, it did 
not assay 0.30 per cent but assayed a much less per cent, to wit, 
0.198 per cent of mydriatic alkaloids.
On January 30, 1912, the case having come on for trial before the 
court and a jury, a verdict of not guilty was returned by the jury by 
direction of the court.
W. M. HAYS, 
Acting Secretary of Agriculture.
WASHINGTON, D. C, December 10, 1912.
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