The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-11-19
DRUGS co HIGHER <
. THAN WAR STOCKS
AND ARE SCARCE
|. .-... &s4F.s ------- s
Honolulu, Like Balance Of Coun-
I try is Hit Very Hard BY
Soaring Prices
PUT YOUR HOME SUPPLY
- IN SAFE DEPOSIT VAULT
- 4AG =
Aspirin Tablets Soon viii Be
Valuable Enough To Use As
"' JeweIry Settings

Hawaiian Sugar and Bethlehem
Steel are not the only stocks and staple
commodities touching the high spots in
price these war days. There are drugs,
for instance, and in particular, as any,
one may have observed who has pur.
chased such things in the last few
weeks and was able to remember the
prices Of old.
! And this is just as true of Honolulu
as any city in the mainland.
| Prices have been going up so steadily
the last year that drug quotations arc
good only for the moment, or until the
ink dries, one might say. Price sheets
are not mailed out by the wholesale
druggists any more, because in many
cases before they reach their destina-
ton the prices have changed.
How Drug Prices Soar
Sodium salieylate Is an example,
Hundreds of pounds were purchased in
Honolulu before the war at sixty cents
a pound. Today the price is $500 and
one cannot be certain of getting it even
at that price.
CarboIic acid sold formerly at twenty,
two cents pound. 1t is now quoted
at 1925 and it is impossible to pur-
chase more than Eve pounds at any one
place. Prior to the war it was pur-
chased by the ton by retailers. Salol
has leaped ninety cents a pounI
to $50, and dealers are finding it
mighty hard to get at that figure. All
coal tar products in which carbolic acid
figures are virtually off the market.
Thousands of sodium salicyIate tab.
lets wore used last year, obtained for
the nominal price of 1925 a thousand.
" retailers find they must coax
WnOlesalers to accept orders for them
al $3.50 a thousand and the latter will
guarantee neither the price nor the de-
livery.
Worth Weight In Gold
Potassium bromide has moved IN
from sixtysix cents a pound TO SAP,
sodium bromide from eighty five cents
to $4.l2i and ammonium bromide from
eighty eight cents to $4.l2. And these
are still soaring. No Wholesale firm, Ho.
nOlulu dealers report, can be induced to
guarantee delivery on even 100 pounds,
and the price will not be assured for
more than one day at time.
The explanation for the advance in
the price of brOmides is that they are
used in vast quantities by bomb manu-
facturers, who have practically bought
M the available supply in America, TO
the exclusion of the drug manufacture
ers and the chemical houses
In thirty days the price of gIycerinr
has jumped from thirty to seventy
cents a pound, and is certain to 90
higher. 1t Is also used in the making
of bombs and explosives.
Quinine Also Soaring
Because the drug law has greatly dim
ished the sale of morphine and cOdeinr
these have not shown such marked ad-
yances.
Large drug purchasers who formerly
bought hydrogen peroxide from main-
and houses in fiftv and seventy five
gallon lots are getting only five ounce
,Ottles, and their purchasers are lin
ted strictly. 1t is reported that within
a few weeks hydrogen peroxide will ba
ntirely off the wholesale market.
Quinine was one of the few drugs
which held to the old prices longest,
Int it now has sought company higher
up, the price leaping from thirty one
'ents an ounce to $40; the end is not
sight. TwO.grain quinime tablets
lave advanced from $1.G8 to 5000
hOusand and are scarce at that
Asperin tablets formerly sold for 81
% so thousand. At the present timo
they sell at a rate Of $40 a THOUSAND,
and not more than 200 tablets will he
delivered to one Wholesale customer, so
he retailer has very poor chance to
.et even a slim stock for his trade.
Some foresighted retail chemists have
'ried the last few weeks to place large
orders of all the drugs needed, but even
with the inducement of spot cash their
forts have been by no means sue.
'eSsful.