16137.  Adulteration   and   misbranding1   of   citrate   of   magnesia.      TJ.   S.   v. 
Max  W.  Robinson   (New  England   Magnesia   Co.).     Plea   of  guilty.
Fine, $200.     (F. & D. No. 22566.    I. S. No. 16484-x.)
On November 21, 1928, the United States attorney for the District of Massa- 
chusetts, acting upon a report by the Secretary of Agriculture, filed in the 
District Court of the United States for said district an information against 
Max W. Robinson, trading, as the New England Magnesia Co., Boston, Mass., 
alleging shipment by said defendant, in violation of the food and drugs act, 
on or about July 26, 1927, from the State of Massachusetts into the State of 
Rhode Island, of a quantity of citrate of magnesia which was adulterated 
and misbranded. The article was labeled in part: " Solution of Citrate of 
Magnesia * * * New England Magnesia Co. Boston, Mass. N E M C O 
U. S. P. IX-Rev. Solution Citrate of Magnesia U. S. P."
It was alleged in the information that the article was adulterated in that 
it was sold under and by a name recognized in the United States Pharma- 
copoeia and differed from the standard of strength, quality, and purity as 
determined by the tests laid down in said pharmacopoeia official at the time 
of investigation of the article, in that it contained magnesium citrate corre- 
sponding to 1.446 grams of magnesium oxide per 100 cubic centimeters, and 
contained in each 10 cubic centimeters total citric acid corresponding to 25 
cubic centimeters of half-normal sulphuric acid, whereas said pharmacopoeia 
provided that solution of citrate of magnesia, to wit, solution of magnesium 
citrate, should contain in each 100 cubic centimeters magnesium citrate corre- 
sponding to not less than 1.5 grams of magnesium oxide, and should contain 
in each 10 cubic centimeters total citric acid corresponding to not less than 28 
cubic centimeters of half-normal sulphuric acid, and the standard of the 
strength, quality, and purity of the said article was not declared on the con- 
tainer thereof. Adulteration was alleged for the further reason that the 
strength and purity of the article fell below the professed standard and 
quality under which it was sold, in that it was represented to conform to the 
tests for solution of citrate of magnesia laid down in the ninth revision of 
the United States Pharmacopoeia and was represented to conform to the tests 
laid down in said pharmacopoeia official at the time of investigation of the 
article, whereas it did not conform to the tests laid down in said pharmacopoeia, 
ninth revision, and did not conform to the tests laid down in said pharma- 
copoeia official at the time of investigation of the article.
Misbranding was alleged for the reason that the statements, to wit, " Solu- 
tion of Citrate of Magnesia U. S. P. IX-REV." and " Solution Citrate of 
Magnesia U. S. P.," borne on the bottles containing the article, were false 
and misleading in that the said statements represented that the article was 
solution of citrate of magnesia which conformed to the standard laid down in 
the ninth revision of the United States Pharmacopoeia, and was solution of 
citrate of magnesia which conformed to the standard laid down in the said 
pharmacopoeia official at the time of investigation of the article, whereas it 
was not solution of citrate of magnesia which conformed to the United States 
Pharmacopoeia, ninth revision, and was not solution of citrate of magnesia 
which conformed to the standard laid down in the said pharmacopoeia official 
at the time of investigation of the article.
On December 10, 1928, the defendant entered a plea of guilty to the infor- 
mation, and the court imposed a fine of $200.
AETHUK M. HYDE, Secretary of Agriculture.