20924. Misbranding of Wood's fever pills.     V. S. v. William H. "Wood, Jr. 
Plea of guilty.    Fine, $5.     (F. & D. no. 281&5.    I. S. no. 50636.)
This case was based on an interstate shipment of Wood's fever pills that 
were represented to be a remedy for certain ailments for which cinchona 
derivatives are customarily prescribed, and which contained insufficient cin- 
chona derivatives to cure such ailments when administered according to the 
directions appearing in the circular: namely, " Two Pills the night before and 
two Pills the morning of the expected fever day; then one Pill night and 
morning for one or two days; then one Pill the night before and one the 
morning of the 7th, 14th and 21st days, counting from the last fever." The 
labeling of the article also bore further unwarranted curative and therapeutic 
claims, and failed to bear a statement of the quantity or proportion of readil- 
y contained in the article. The article was represented to be a safe, sure, 
and reliable medicine; whereas it contained drugs that might be harmful, 
and was not reliable, safe, or sure.
On November 28, 1932, the United States attorney for the Eastern District 
of Illinois, acting upon a report by the Secretary of Agriculture, filed in the 
district court of the United States an information against William H. Wood, 
Jr., a member of a firm trading as Dr. W. Wood & Sons, Cairo, Ill., alleging 
shipment by said defendant, on or about September 17, 1931, from the State 
of Illinois into the State of Tennessee, of a quantity of Wood's fever pills that 
were misbranded, in violation of the Food and Drugs Act as amended.
Analysis of a sample of the article by this Department showed that it con- 
sisted essentially of acetanilide (0.86 grain per pill), cinchonine (0.367 grain 
per pill), extracts of plant drugs, and sugar.
It was alleged in the information that the article was adulterated in that 
certain statements, designs, and devices, regarding its therapeutic and curative 
effects, appearing on the labels of the packages and in a circular shipped with 
the article, falsely and fraudulently represented that it was effective as a 
treatment, remedy, and cure for all bilious and malarial diseases; and as a 
powerful alterative and blood purifier; effective for rousing and toning up 
all the secretions; effective as a treatment, remedy, and sure for any form of 
malarial fever, such as bilious fever, fever and ague, dumb ague, intermitting 
and remitting fever, sick headache and swamp fever; effective for removing 
an enlarged spleen or ague cake in a very short time; effective to remove 
worms from children; effective as a treatment and cure for diarrhoea, dysen- 
tery, and summer complaint in children; effective as a remedy for kidney 
derangements, apoplexy, paralysis, insanity, and spinal diseases generally; 
effective as a female regulator; effective to break up and relieve a sick head- 
ache in a short time; effective when the system is debilitated and the blood 
has lost its rich, rosy hue, to act as a powerful tonic and blood renovator, 
and to bring back the " Rose that Health used to wear"; effective as a pre- 
ventive whenever the fever symptoms appear or " you feel indisposed "; effec- 
tive as a preventive for diseases in sickly seasons or in malarial districts; 
effective to rouse a torpid liver; effective as a cure for jaundice and to restore 
lost vitality to the brain worker, the inebriate and the reveler, and as a 
treatment for the nervous system on the ragged edge of utter prostration; 
effective as a substitute for the elixir of perpetual youth; effective as a medi- 
cine to remove disease through the secretions; effective as a cure for erysipelas, 
malarial dropsy, dizziness, mental confusion, loss of memory and malarial 
rheumatism; effective as a preventive for yellow fever, typhoid fever, cholera
and all other zymotic diseases produced by germs or blood ferments; and 
effective as a treatment, remedy, and cure for chronic diarrhoea.
Misbranding was alleged for the further reason that the statements in the 
circular, " They are Honest Safe and Sure ", I offer you in these pills a safer 
and cheaper remedy and one far more certain and reliable ", and " Safe Reliable 
and Honest Medicine", were false and misleading, since the article was not 
honest, safe, and sure; it was not a safe, certain, and reliable remedy; and 
was not a safe, reliable, and honest medicine. Misbranding was alleged for 
the further reason that the article contained acetanilid and the label failed to 
bear a statement of the quantity or proportion of acetanilide contained therein.
On April 10, 1933, the defendant entered a plea of guilty to the information, 
and the court imposed a fine of $5.
R. G. TUG-WELL, Aotinff Secretary of Agriculture.