In 1906 the United States Congress enacted, after a quarter century of consideration, the Food and Drugs Act, a broad statute aimed at controlling adulteration and misbranding of foods and drugs in interstate commerce. The quality of these products, which represented some twenty-five cents of every dollar spent by consumers, was of fundamental importance to the public health. The book resulting from this project will narrate, analyze, and interpret the experience of the Bureau of Chemistry and, after 1927, the Food and Drug Administration, in the Department of Agriculture, in enforcing this law until it was replaced by the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, which became fully effective in 1940. Enforcement trends will be traced and illustrated by case histories, this special theme being set within a framework of relevant scientific, industrial, social, legal, and political developments.
