The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1894-01-27
MORE VALUABLE THAN GOLD.
Some Drugs Cost Over Their Weight
In tho Yellow M etaI.


Some months ago, at an exhibition
OF the American Public Health Asso-
citation in Brooklyn, one manufacture
ing chemist handed in medicines the
total value Of which amounted to
some $50, 900, The most costly drug
in this collection was that labeled
"Hom-atropine hydrobromate, cryst."
In all, says the Pittsburg Dispatch, six
pounds OF il We're contained in a single
jar, and the price thereof was Sl2 600,
or ~, 100 per pound. This expensive
remedy is an alkaloid, artificially pre-
pared from atrOpine, II preparation OF
belladonna. Another costly medicine
shown was an acOnitine alkaloid in the
form OF an anonymous powder, pre-
pared from aconitum napelius. Three
pounds Of this were valued at $4S9. ID.
A three and one-quarter ounce bottle
of anemonia was priced xl9l.4o.
OF caffeine there were thirteen differ
ent preparations in small bottles,
ranging in price from $l6 to $2S a
bottle. A small vial of a letter wart
preparation called chelidomine aka
loid was marked SSS. Cocaine is
another expensive medicine four
pounds Of il being valued at 1920. A
new form of cantharidin crystals was
priced $l43 a small vial. A fifteen
ounce bottle of IA preparation of NOR
phine, called codeine phosphate, stood
for Sl35. DigitaliS germaine, the great
heart remedy, costs about $40 per
pound. 4 t%iye-ounce bottle cf true
cotoin' sells at $40 an ounce. The
South American Indian arrow poison,
rs prepared i'm the form OF crystals and
used rs Il medicine i'm h%ydrophobia and
lOckiaw, costs $50 an ounce. \
still more expensive form of crystals,
named hyos.ine hydrobromate, is
valued at 81, 1866 go per ounce. Ger
tain other drugs varied in price all
the way from Sl2 to S35 per ounce,
Papaine Alkaloid, n vegetable pepsin
obtained from the juice OF the melon
tree in tropical America, sells for
$l20 a pound. A solvent for diph-
theric membrane, is valued at $l4,57
an ounce, The calabar bean comes
in for very costly preparations, chiefly
used in diseases OF the eye and lock-
jaw, One of these, physostigmine
alkaloid, is valued at the sum of
800, 30 per ounce, Another prepar-
ton Of the same costs something over
$6l3 an ounce, A special form OF
nitrate crystal, prepared from the
leaves OF the jarborandi, pilocarpus
pennati foliuS, and used in con-
sumption, is priced at $37, ounce
value.
The list might be indefinitely ex-
tended, for the number Of new and
costly drugs is on the daily increase,
1t would be hard, indeed, TO find the
druggist who is familiar with all of
those now on the market, To pro-
cure anything like accurate knowl-
edge on this point, the immense
pharmacoppia Of the United States
must not only be studied, but those
also of Germany and Great Britain,
themselves vast complications OF
scientifically assorted facts. Out of
this great number OF remedies, how
ever, but few are in actual use, and
the task Of the practical pharmacist is,
therefore, not so hopelessly bewilder-
ing rs it would seem. To the cost of the
drugs he manipulates must moreover
be added a certain %percentum of the
cost of his W training-let alone
that of the prescribing physician.
Putting all this and that together, it
would seem a matter of wonder, not
that it costs so much, but that it
c.'tS 50 little to pay for the luxury
OF being I'LL.