7871. Adulteration and misbranding of birch oil. TJ. S. * * * v. 1 Can 
* * * of a Product Purporting to be Birch Oil. Default decree of 
condemnation, forfeiture, and sale. (F. & D. No. 12121. I. S. No. 8-r. 
S. No. E-1936)
On January 28, 1920, the United States attorney for the Southern District of 
New York, acting upon a report by the Secretary of Agriculture, filed in the 
District Court of the United States for said district a libel for the seizure and 
condemnation of 1 can, containing 12^ pounds of a product purporting to be 
birch oil, remaining unsold in the original unbroken package at New York, 
N. Y., alleging that the article had been shipped on or about January 19, 1920, by 
Z. B. Buchanan, Hickory, N. C, and transported from the State of North Caro- 
lina into the State of New York, and charging adulteration aud misbranding in 
violation of the Food and Drugs Act.
Analysis of a sample of the product by the Bureau of Chemistry of this 
department showed that it contained synthetic methyl salicylate.
Adulteration of the article was alleged in the libel for the reason that it was 
sold under and by a name recognized in the United States Pharmacopceia and 
differed from the Pharmacopoeial standard of strength, quality, and purity,, 
and in that its own standard of strength, quality, and purity was not plainly 
stated upon its container, and in that its strength and purity fell below the pro- 
fessed standard or quality under which it was sold. Adulteration of the 
article was alleged for the further reason that a substance, to wit, synthetic 
methyl salicylate, had been mixed and packed with, and substituted in part for, 
the article.
Misbranding of the article was alleged, both in the case of drugs and in the 
case of food, for the reason lhat the article was an imitation of, and was 
offered for sale under the name of, another article, to wit, birch oil.
On April 17, 1920, no claimant having appeared for the property, a default 
decree of condemnation and forfeiture was entered, and it was ordered by the 
court that the product be sold as imitation birch oil by the United States 
marshal.
E. D. BALL, Acting Secretary of Agriculture.