The Detroit times., 1914-08-15
CARBOLIC ACID
TOO DEAR NOW
FOR SUICIDES
War Boosts Price Five Hundred
Per Cent and Supply is
Almost Gone
DRUG SITUATION REAL
PERIL, SAYS BROOKS
Surgery and Medicine Face
Tremendous Handicaps With
Imports Stopped

Unless that European war Is settled
! within the next 60 days OF so, persons
who want to break into the death lists
on this side OF the water, by stie car.
bolic acid route, which has always
been favorite with suicides, are go,
ing TO have a hard time obtaining
their drug. The fact is. they probably
will not be able to obtain II. and the
old fashioned method of soap box,
rome and rafter will have TO be called
In as substitute.
For war, viewed In the phase of II
which affects the prices and uses and
supplies OF drugs, Is somewhat similar
to that old nursery riddle: What
will cause a cold, cure cold. and
paw the Doctors bill?" the answer be-
ing, "A draft" In Europe, where
they obtain the entire supply of car
bollc acid for the use or the whole
world In dressing wounds, sterilizing
surgical Instruments. and In a thou.
sand and one ways In hospitals and
sick rooms, they are just at present
using all the available supply OF car
bo,ic acid to make explosives, with
which to send men to hospitals, by
the thousands.
Carbolic acid Is contraband OF war.
The nations need 1t. for killing. Any
one trying to get II out OF Germany
Tor England, whence all OF the supply
comes, will be shot at.
Glycerin, that grateful unguent for
chapped hands, and healing agent gen.
orally, is also contrahand Of war. The
nations need II for making nitro-gly-
cerin. to blow men, battlesnips, and
forts 10 small pieces. II any OF II Is
left out OF the bombs and shells,
Europe will be able to use the rest In
its field hospitals, and America viii
have to get along without either glyc-
erin or carbolic, after the present sup
ply is exhausted.
Never before has the drug trade.
and the medical profession generally,
faced such serious situation as now
Iconfronts the world" says Alanson s..
Brooks. vice-president and treasurer
of the Michigan Drug Co.. discussing
the remarkable fight In prices OF vari-
GUS drugs. within the last ten days.
Europe furnishes more than so per
cent of the basic drugs-the crude
.materials--that are in constant use.
The most important. In fact the drugs
that we must have, come principally
from Germany, France. Austria. Eng
land and Russia. America has great
refining plants, but few producers or
crude drug elements. And the big
drug houses OF New York city, the
second greatest drug market in the
world, carry only stocks which will
last 60 days. We carry only 60-days
stock here. At the end of so days. II
the war lasts that long. and II ocean
commerce is paralyzed for that length
|of time. / have no idea what the drug
trade, and consequently the medical
profession. is going to do to obtain
needed drugs.
Personally, believe that England
will make the ocean safe for COM
merce. within less than go days, which
will allow some drugs to be shipped,
but that will not relieve matters en-
|tirely. Carbolic acid. most heces-
sary drug, cannot be obtained until
the war is over. Perhaps we could
make II here. II is produced from
coal. We would have to try.
iodine, from which iodoform is OBJ
tanned, Is manufactured In Germany
almost entirely, and indication of how
the drug industry is paralyzed there,
comes In news that Merck & Co. IS
plant in Darmstadt. Germany, the big
gest medicinal chemical plant in the
world, has been closed down, because
every one OF the 5000 men employed
there has been called to the army.
The Solvay Process Co. plant In
France, near the Alsatian border. en-
ploying 800 men, has been closed
down. and Its men have joined the
French army. They turned out guam
titles OF iodine Every surgical oper-
alton performed in hospital, requires
iodoform. II Is hard to tell what can
be done IL we can't get iodine.