Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-10-28
COSTLY DRUGS.
Small Fortunes Contained in Some Of
the PhiaIs.
Sprung Upon a Reporter SEARCHING
for the New.

Il have taken my weight in that
medicine" is an expression that is
sometimes heard, when man or
woman who has had great deal of i'll
ness in his or her life. is telling of it.
1t cannot be that this refers to some Of
the medicines that are to be procured
in almost all the drug stores.
Why, if it We're true of medicine
that is found in one store the man
weighing $50 pounds could say that he
had expended $157,5OO in that one
medicine
Some drugs are expensive and yet,
as one druggist plaintively said, 'The
people will kick if we charge 40 cents
for a prescription"
At one of Augustus drug stores
visited recently, the question was
asked, What is the most expensive
drug that you have in stock?"
We have not many very expensive
drugs; that is, not so expensive as
there a re in the market said one Of
the proprietors. "Our most expensive
one is dserine. 1t costs us Is cents for
each grain. For a pound that would
be the small sum of $1O50."
Well. If that wasn't the coolest way
of stunning a man unacquainted with
hrrc
glad to see cooler one. To think of
little grain of that medicine costing
ID cents: and a pound over thousand
dollars. Talk about gold being the
most precious thing on earth. 1t isn't
in 1t with some of the drugs, as fur
Their developments showed.
That is but an ordinary price for
drugs, continued the druggist. Here
is drug quoted at $12 for Is grains, or 80
cents for each grain. That would
bring the pound up to $500, and 1
would guarantee to deliver a ton Of
the medicine. providing l could get it,
anywhe Ire within the city limits fo,
$11, 100000. The price Of the weight of
an ordihar man of this material would
be abo4 ut $4,000"
I'VE have here pilocarpine, drug
that costs just one-tenth as much. as
the mdre expensive one, which is
1t seems to be the prevailing opinion
that all drugs are cheap and a pre-
scriptioh that calls for many things is
really of little value until the 300 or
400 per cent. profit of the druggist is
added, but not all of the different in
gredien is are as cheap as water or
EPSON salts. which is the medicine that
is most taken of all, but there the
public Is mistaken.
If there is prescription that calls
for ma ny of the expensive medicines
to be nat in them, and we are obliged
to cut the price down to the cost, TIL.
person is sure to think that medicine
is the best thing he ever took, and will |
bring the bottle back again and again
to be reflled,' said the drug mixer.
These expensive drugs do not have
to be kept in great quantities, as the
call for them by the physicians are
not ma n.y.
Eserlne, the medicine that costs 10
cents per grain. is a product of the
calabar bean. This bean grows on a |
plant in Africa. and is allied to the
kidney bean.
The greatest effect of the drug would |
seem to be upon the pocket book, yet it |
is said to be very effective upon the |
human system. The extract is used |
incidentally in doses of from one
to one-eighth of a grain, in
cases of st. Vitus dance, lock jaw. 1t |
is sometimes used to counterfeit the
by belladonna. The use
about insane people is the greatest, as
It works upon the heart and nerves
some Of this placed on the eyeball will |
cause nearsightedness, which is the
opposite of the effects of belladonna or
atropia.
Probably the pilocarpine is used more
han the eserine. as it is used in fevers,
kidney diseases, mumps, asthma and
pleurisy.
When one wants a surprise a good |
place lis to visit drug store, get the
prices and see how small an amount
will kill a man.