The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-05
Persons Obliged to Patro- nize Pharmacies Quickly Realize the Effect of the Conflict Upon Trade
 From Aconite to Zeodary is the Scarcity Apparent.

The aptness of the appel1atfon- ''the World War; so frequent1y applied to the titanic struggle Of the nations of Europe, is brought home to the Am erican public with especial force in the appreciation of the fact that we are called upon to pay the price no less than the people of the warning nations.O Our share to the cost of the combat is particularly obvious to the drug trade and to the ai1ing persons who use the commodities that go to make up the material used in the treatment of disease; for this country has relied to a great extent upon ot1- CTS for it's supply of medical chemicals and plant products, in some instances because of lack of natural recourses, in. others because of economic condi- tons
 So it is that the sufferer from cold or fever faces the necessity of pay ing high for quinine; for this drug has advanced in price from about 20 cents an ounce to more than two dollars, and the price is still going up. On one hand there is the reason why the cuI- tivation of cinchona bark. from which quinine is made. has been largely shifted from its native South Arneri- ca to Java and nearby lands and ena-
 
 ments of this bark, which because of ownership or contracts must come through European ports. On the other hand is the factor for the enormous demand for quintne for the use Of the battling troops. thousands of ounces being called for every week. Is it any wonder that we must pay more for our q1inine pills?
 Then there is glycerin, the very use full fall and winter application for chapped hands, the necessary com ponent part of cough remedies and gargle-and the basis of nitrog1ycerin from which the explosive munitions of war. are made. Tons and tons of it going up in smoke on the battle fields of Europe. It is but by-pro- duct in the making of soap, candles and so on, and the supply is limited; therefore the druggist must pay from 60 to 75 cents pound for it in large quantitfes-5o ,0oO pounds have been sold for war purposes at 50 cents pound-where a few months ago we paid one third or one-fourth as much.
 Potassium (potash) Is not very plentiful in the mineral resources of this country in the forms which can be manufactured into the medical sa1ts such as the ch1orate, iodide, and bromide, and sa1tpeter-and the chief supply has come from Germany. As L11lS source z1S,z zQFdSt1Cd1lJs2 C1OS9Qs EIElG available supplies of these necessary are getting extremely low, and the prices are soaring. In modern war fare the surgical work in an army IS aI1-important, and iodine has come tos play a prominent part in the treat ment Of wounds, being an excellent santiseptic dressing, potassi urn iodine which is made by cornbfning potash and iodfneS has two reasons for being high in price, It has not advanced as much as potassi uTn bromide, because we can get iodine from seaweed in this country but we cannot get bromine, as the supply of that came from Germ any principally and is obviously shut off For this reason, also, we cannot turn to sodium bromide for relief, even though the basic substance, soda for instance is available.
 Epsom salt, that common household Erene cheap and effective, have been obtained almost exclusively from Ger man sources. The raw product com ing chiefly from certain mineral wa ters in Germany and Austro-Hungary. l It fssc1ear that if can no longer be ob- tained freely, hence the druggist and his customers face the necessity of l paying four or five times as muchsfor fit as they did before the war upset the
 market.
 l Pheno1 (carbo1fc acid) is of so much importance as an antiseptic that fl ] son for 1t being in great demand for f war purposes Little pf1enol was made in this country before the war; becaiise our processes of making coa-gas and l coke, in which is obtained the crude acid. was not of the sort employed in England and Germany, by means o1 which the recovery of the acid is conn
 mercially possible. The war almost completely closed the sources from which we obtained carbolie acid, and its price has advanced tremendously two dollars a. pound being a low figure at the present time as against one I tenth that a. few months ago. Pheno 1 is extensively used in the making o1
 many ether medical substances, such l as salicylic acid. saIol, aspirin, phena- l cetin, and the like, which are direct l5chenicaIs defivitives of phenol. The high cost and the extensive use o1 pheno1 have resulted in a grave scar 1 city of these deriyitives, and druggists
 are lucky if they can get a few ounces at time-and they are obliged to pay as much for an ounce as they formerly l paid for a pound
 This country has never given much i thought to the cultivation of rnedica-
 plants until a few years ago. We re- l lied upon European sources, where 1 the cost of harvesting was small and l the production, even of the plants that are native te this country such at | gentian, goldenseal hoarhound, and 1 the like, received a deal of attention I many medical plants cannot be growT in this country. These two facts 1ef
 us high and dry when the war cut of our usual supply, and scarcity has beer
 the rule with all vegetable drugs iron aconite to zeodary and scarcity alway. 1 means high prices, be it with eggs ol lipecac. -
 Truly the lot of the druggist in thes,
 parIous times is no happy one ht
 m l1st. advance his prices all througI
 his line of drugs. Tn ere is no relief il
 sight for him, and he and his custom
 CTS must suffer the fate of the innoc
 ent bystander and pay well for tht warning in which they have no othel bart
 Bids will be asked by the Southern
 Pacific co. for two freight steamers tc 11aN 11sed in the coastwise trade The