12021. Adulteration of oysters.     V. S. v. Herman A. Woodfield and William
F.   Woodfieltl   (Herman   A.   Woodfleld   <&.   Bro.).    Pleas   of   fi-iiilty.
Fine, $100 and coats.     (F.  & D. No.  17427.     I.  S. Nos.  1357-v,  1358-v.)
On July 19, 1923, the United States attorney for the District of Maryland, 
acting upon a report by the Secretary of Agriculture, filed in the District 
Court of the United States for said district an information against Herman 
A. Woodfield and William F. Woodfield, copartners, trading as Herman A. 
Woodfield & Bro., Galloways, Md., alleging shipment by said defendants, in 
violation of the Food and Drugs Act, on or about January 11, 1923, from the 
State of Maryland into the District of Columbia, of quantities of oysters which 
were adulterated.
Examination of samples of the article by the Bureau of Chemistry of this 
department showed that the oysters were soft and spongy, somewhat bleached 
in appearance, with little oyster flavor or salinity, and had every appearance 
of being soaked. The two consignments contained 17.5 and 22 per cent, re- 
spectively, of thin watery liquor, having little oyster flavor and resembling 
water rather than oyster liquor.
Adulteration of the article was alleged in the information for the reason 
that a substance, to wit, water, had been mixed and packed therewith so as 
to lower and reduce and injuriously affect its quality and had been substituted 
in part for oysters, which the said article purported to be. Adulteration was 
alleged for the further reason that a valuable constituent of the article, to wit. 
oyster solids, had been in part abstracted.
On July 19, 1923, the defendants entered pleas of guilty to the information, 
and the court imposed fines in the aggregate amount of $100, together with 
the costs.
C. F. MABVIN, Acting Secretary of Agriculture.