The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1909-04-21


n, ing something like four thou
sand tons. OF infinite variety,
dressed in coats of many colors, from
humble gelatine to those clad in sill
Yer and gold-fashionable pellets for
aristocratic throats. Capable of allie
waiting every i'll to which flesh is heir,
if charged with a deadly poison less
than half OF them would be sufficient
to destroy every man, woman and
child on this planet.
America is without exception the
greatest pill-eating nation in the
world. and every one of her citizens
swallows forty pills each year. Where
do they all come from? Well, De-
troit makes about sixty per cent of
them, and sends forth these tiny
messengers OF health at the rate of
one hundred thousand and seventy
tons a month.
But let us leave Detroit and it's
pills for a moment and turn to the
romantic side of this immense indus
try. For. strange as it may seem.
there is a romantic side even to sucn
prosaic thing as a pill For in
order to obtain the material from
which Americas pills are made dar-
ing explorers have risked life and
limb in fever-stricken swamps, have
journeyed thousands of miles on
horseback through unsurveyed coun-
tries, and have penetrated to the in
nermost recesses of India and AT
RIGA.
$4,000 for Herbs
TAKE the case of the we'll known
botanist, Dr. H. H. Rusby. A phar-
maceutical firm sent him out in
charge OF an expedition with instruc-
tons to bring back certain precious
drugs believed to exist in a little
known part of South America. Land
ing at africa. in Peru. the doctor
jcurneyed to La Paz, where he spent
several months in the center OF the
great cocoa producing country, study
ing the therapeutic and physiologic
action of that drug.
He then went to Valparaiso turned
towards the Andes and crossed them,
and then made preparations for one
OF the most dangerous journeys on
record-the descent OF three thou
sand miles of the Amazon in canoes
and on RATS. Many anxious months
passed by without any word from him
reaching the outer world, and it was
feared that he had persisted in the
mlasmatic swamps of the great river
And all the time the drug-hunter was
calmly analyZing new botanical dis
coveries in a country alive With ven
omous snakes and wild beasts. in a
climate that was pregnant with fever
and disease, his only companions a
few puzzled natives, more than apt
to be treacherous.
1t was one of the finest things ever
done by one man in the interests of
suffering humanity, and met with the
success it deserved, for it resulted in
the discovery of the greatest rem
edy in the world for a painful dis
ease-Pichi. And the $4,000 which
was spent by Busby has been re-
turned a hundredfold
Expeditions for Pill Materials
r NTlRE fishing fleets are employed
- in the northern seas by great De-
troit houses in search of fish that
yield valuable oils, and costly expe-
ditions are continually being fitted
out to add to the pill makers store.
Not long ago a man journeyed on
horseback from Buenos Asres across
the continent for three nousand
miles. Reaching Chilli, h ,ored for
months in the mountain s. and after
spending fortune he discovered
Chekan, which is now used by ply
sicians the world over
In search of cure for rheumatism
another expedition went two thou
sand five hundred miles up the Am
azon, and after literally hewing their
way through the wild and well nigh
impenetrable jungles of the Madeira
river, they discovered the drug Man