The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1885-07-10
QUEER AND COSTLY DRUGS.
\ White Powder Worth $500 an Ounce
RatttesnaIJe Virus as an Opiate.

I
IsatttesnaIJe Virus an Opiate.
! A doctor from one of the Western
cities, who has a wide practice as an
oculist and aurist, entered drug store
the other day and purchased small
bottle of cocaine, the new an9sthetic
used with such success in eye oper-
atoms. He said he had prescribed it
for diseased car. The tiny bottle half
Full of whit;sh powder cost him five
dollars
Provincial physicians in this coun-
try are very enterprising, said the
druggist, when the doctor had gone out:
''Tney have already begun the use of
and it is to many druggists profitable
dug, because they can charge fancy
p~ice for it: L quote it at over three
dollars an ounce.
. A well-stocked drug store must be
supplied with a great variety of medi-
zines now if its proprietor fills prescrip-
tons for all schools, continued tho
druggist Zone day we had call
from a homeopathic physician for
rattlesnake virus. The doctor had been
called in to see patient who was soon
TO die of cancer and who had taken
ordinary opiates until they seemed to
have but little effect. We did not have
the medicine. but the next time | saw
the doctor he said that he had obtained
it, and that twenty minutes after taking
a very low dilution of the virus the sui
ferer sank into sweet sleep. The
olden days, when all sorts of insects
ind animals were used in medicine,
were fruitful of some beneficial discov-
cries. The poison of a bee, when APP
pl.ed externally by bee, is not par
ticularly beneficial; but know a doctor
who claims wonders for it in cases of
scarlet fever.
The beaver furnishes a remedy
known as castor, used.to quiet spasms,
and the musk OK provides musk 1t
comes in the form of coarse black
powder, and the best of it is quoted at
about forty dollars an ounce. We sell
considerable quantities of it to the
Chinese who are said to use it for burns.
1t is believed that the Chinese have
a knowledge of many valuable rem
cdies which would benefit science, but,
although we have been able to purchase
some of their notwithstanding drugs
as curiOsites, they have refused to i'm
idea of their notions with respect to
medicine can be gained when it is
known that they regard the wild gin
seng root as sacred to the healing of
royalty, and as q spiritual body, capable
of volition and of cOncealing itself to
escape capture. Its guardians are the
tiger, wolf, leopard and snake. When
a member of the royal family falls sick,
as did the Empress some time ago, a
party of heroic men go in search of the
root, whose presence is finally revealed
at night by a halo over the spot of con-
cealment, which is marked, the root be-
ing dug on the following day. The
cultivated ginseng, or jen shen, is not
believed by the natives to be endowed
with the properties of the wild, but is
used freely by the subjects. 1t is be-
lieved that its chief value lies in its
wonderful recuperative power, prolong-
ing life when a patient has begun to
sink into his last sleep, and in giving
him time to arrange his affairs.
I'm mentioning animal products as
drugs 1 should perhaps have spoken of
ambergrs, n deposit Of grayish matter,
which is found occasionally in the head
of sperm whale. 1t sells often for
thirty dollars an ounce at retail. 1t is
said that one whaler found deposit of
seven hundred and fifty pounds in
single whale.
Among the expensive drugs is er-
gOtin, winch Tctals ut the rate of about
twenty dollars an ounce. 1t is afun-
gouS growth on rye in Normandy A
similar growth on rye i'll America con-
tains very little ergotin. less, indeed.
than the smut on Indian corn. As
there are several @rowths which yield
ergOtin in a greater or less degree, 50
there are several South American plants
that produce iaborandi. the drug now
used sometimes to produce sweating.
In the list of expensive drugs the
product OF the Calabar bean may be
mentioned. Physostigmine, which is
rated by many as the best remedy in
in spaSmodic affections. retails ut over
not to be compared to the drugs that 1
have mentioned, is expensive. 1t was
discovered by 4 man named Wright,
who subjected morphine to a treatment
that entirely changed its chemical quail
tiles, so that instead of being an opiate
it is one of the most powerful emetics
known, and is given only in extreme
cases, like poisoning. As | said at the
outset an enterprising druggist has to
keep an extensive variety of medicines,
the cheapest as well as the most eX-
pensive. Pumpkin seeds are frequently
sold as a remedy for tape worm and
with the mole fern as a vermifuge. A
doctor came in here the other day and |
called for some everlasting life. Singu-
lar thing for a doctor to prescribe, |
wasn't it? In medicine it is a queer |
North AmericanEplant. Jobs tears is |