7374. Adulteration of oysters.     U.S.    *    *    *    v. Walter Van Orden, William
C   Van   Orden,   and   Ida   F.   Mussen    (Van   Orden   Bros.),     flea   of 
guilty.    Fine, ?25.     (F. & D. No. 10004..    I. S. No. 6720-r.)
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 an information against 
Walter Van Orden, William C. Van Orden, and Ida F. Mussen, copartners, 
trading as Van Orden Bros., New York, N. Y., alleging shipment by said de- 
fendants, in violation of the Food and Drugs Act, on January 9, 1919, from the 
State of New York into the State of Illinois, of a quantity of oysters which 
were adulterated.
Examination of a sample of the article by the Bureau of Chemistry of this 
department showed that the oysters had been excessively soaked with water. 
?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, reduce, and injuriously affect its quality and strength, and had been 
substituted in part for oysters, which the article purported to be.
On February 4, 1920, the defendants entered a plea of guilty to the informa- 
tion, and the court imposed a fine of $25.
E. D. BALL, 
Acting Secretary of Agriculture: