Opinion
No. 8608.
Argued November 10, 1944.
Decided November 27, 1944.
Petition for Review of Order of Federal Trade Commission.
Proceeding by J.E. Todd, Inc., against the Federal Trade Commission to review a cease and desist order of the commission.
Affirmed.
Mr. John A. Nash, of Washington, D.C., with whom Mr. Horace J. Donnelly, of Washington, D.C., was on the brief, for petitioner.
Mr. Robert P. Bellinger, member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, of Washington, D.C., pro hac vice, by special leave of Court, with whom Messrs. W.T. Kelley, Chief Counsel, Federal Trade Commission, and Joseph J. Smith, Jr., Assistant Chief Counsel, both of Washington, D.C., were on the brief, for respondent. Mr. J. Wallace Nichol, of Washington, D.C., also entered an appearance for respondent.
Before GRONER, Chief Justice, and EDGERTON and ARNOLD, Associate Justices.
This is a petition to review an order of the Federal Trade Commission which requires petitioner to cease advertising that its product has value in the treatment of arthritis, neuritis, rheumatism or similar diseases. For the petitioner, two osteopathic physicians testified before the Commission that they had treated hundreds of patients with this product; that it had effected cures in severe cases of arthritis; and that its curative properties were due mainly to its olibanum content. For the Commission, a chemist testified that it contained at most a trace of olibanum; and three doctors of medicine, two of whom were specialists in the treatment of arthritis, testified that its ingredients, including olibanum, alone or in combination, had no value in relation to arthritis, neuritis or rheumatism. The Commission so found. The supporting evidence is substantial though the experts who gave it had no clinical experience with the product and the opposing experts had such experience. General medical and pharmacological knowledge is a sufficient basis for such testimony as the Commission's experts gave. John J. Fulton Co. v. Federal Trade Commission, 9 Cir., 130 F.2d 85, certiorari denied 317 U.S. 679, 63 S.Ct. 158, 87 L.Ed. 544; Neff v. Federal Trade Commission, 4 Cir., 117 F.2d 495; Justin Haynes Co. v. Federal Trade Commission, 2 Cir., 105 F.2d 988, certiorari denied 308 U.S. 616, 60 S.Ct. 261, 84 L.Ed. 515.
Two months after the order was issued the Commission slightly modified its findings of fact. Since the modified findings support the order they do not, as appellant contends, vitiate it or require the formality of reissuing it.
Affirmed.