24636. Misbranding of Nerve Forza.    U. S. v. Hector A. Pietri.     Plea of snllty. 
Fine, $25.     (F. & D. no. 32144.    Sample no. 7862-A.)
This case was based on a shipment of a drug preparation the labeling of 
which contained unwarranted curative and therapeutic claims. Analysis 
showed that the product contained alcohol in excess of the percentage declared 
on,1 the label.
On November 28, 1934, 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 an information against Hector A. Pietri, a member of a 
partnership trading as the International Pharmacal Co., New York, N. Y., 
alleging shipment by said defendant in violation of the Food and Drugs Act 
as amended, on or about February 2, 1933, from the State of New York to 
San Juan, P. R., of a quantity of Nervo Forza which was misbranded.
Analysis showed that the article contained glycerin, calcium and sodium 
phosphates, strychnine, sugar, a trace of anise, other vegetable extractive, and 
10.6 percent of alcohol by volume.
The article was alleged to be misbranded in that certain statements borne 
on the bottle and carton labels and contained in the circular shipped with the 
article, falsely and fraudulently represented that it was effective as a powerful 
reconstituent of the brain and nervous system and as an excellent regulator 
of the blood; effective as a regulator of the blood and sovereign food for the 
brain; effective as a tonic for weak men and women as an aid in run-down 
conditions and general weakness, physical and mental exhaustion, lack of anima- 
tion, loss of appetite and for all sickness caused by poor blood or nervous dis- 
orders ; convalescence from various wasting diseases, such as typhoid, scarlet, 
and malaria fevers, grip, pneumonia and menstrual disorders; effective as a 
treatment, remedy, and cure for anemia and general debility, cerebral anemia, 
nervous debility, neurasthenia, melancholy, sexual debility or impotency, and 
all such diseases due to impoverishment of the blood and nervous troubles; 
nervous prostration, chlorosis, urinariasis, espermatorrhea-, dysmenorrhea and 
all such diseases that depend on the blood and nerve; and effective as a treat- 
ment for women without nervous energies due to menstrual disorders and 
liable to physical and mental exhaustion during the convalescence of parturi- 
tion or any other disease; effective as a treatment for anemia in general, 
defective nerve cell nutrition, nerve weakness of the aged, loss of memory, 
insomnia, inappetence and all such diseases due to impoverishment of the 
blood and nervous troubles; effective to stimulate the nerves and to serve as an 
organic nutrient of the nervous cells, as well as to stimulate the economy 
without producing depressive reaction; effective to increase the cellular activity, 
regularize or accelerate the digestion; effective as the most energetic vigorizing 
agent, and an ideal preparation for weak women and men; effective to renew 
lost vigor; effective as a treatment for anemic and weak conditions the result 
of paludism; and effective to strengthen the tissues, exalt the nutrition of the 
nerves and cerebral centers, increase the calcic and azoated changes, prevent 
the dismineralization of infectious diseases, stimulate the defensive processes 
of the organism and combat mailnutrition; effective as an energetic stimulant 
to the muscular functions; and effective to tonify the cardiac muscle, to 
regularize the circulation, to act efficaciously over the digestive canal, to activate 
the gastro-intestinal functions, to activate the diuresis, to tonify the general 
condition of the system and to leave it in a condition to defend itself against 
all influences and the diathesis; effective to give the blood the necessary 
elements to resist and defend itself against infectious anemia, to communicate 
a surprising strength and extraordinary activity to the muscles, to energetically 
enliven and tonify the nerves, to strengthen and stimulate the weakened heart, 
to produce easy and abundant gastro-intestinal secretions and to tonify at the 
same time the muscular fibers of the digestive tract, to increase and regularize 
the nutritive changes, to insure a normal general condition of the system, to 
recover lost vital energy, and to give strength, energy, and vitality to weak and 
anemic persons; and effective as a treatment, remedy, and cure for insomnia, 
neurasthenia, ill humor, and inappetence in women; and effective to restore 
lost strength and tonify the nerves of women. Misbranding was alleged for 
the further reason that the statement on the carton, "Alcohol 5%", was false 
and misleading, since the article contained more than 5 percent of alcohol, and 
for the further reason that the article contained alcohol and the label failed to 
bear a statement of the quantity and proportion of alcohol contained therein.
On May 13, 1935, the defendant entered a plea of guilty and the court im- 
posed a fine of $25.
W. R. GBEQQ, Acting Secretary of Agriculture.