The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-12-21
HOW DRUG PRICES
HAVE ADVANCED.
In No Avenue of Commerce
Has the Effect of War
Been More Keenly Felt
GERMANY AT START
HELD THE CONTROL
Now the American Manufacturers Arc
Turning Out Products Formerly I'M
ported and Result is Decrease in Cost
of Some Commodities.

In none of the avenues Of commerce
has the effect OF the world war been
felt more kccnlv than i'll the drug matt5
of civiiazation I'm a communication to
the National Geographic society, part
of which has been issued as wan
geography bulletin, DR.. John Footc re
cites some Of the conspicuous examples
Of the high cost of being i'll. He SAYS:
1T is interesting to compare some Of
the prices per pound quoted in whole
sale drug trade bulletins in July, 1914,
and then a year later. Bleaching pow
der or s.chloride Of lime used III the
arts and as a disiHfectant advanced
from | 3-s cents to 9 cents per pound;
sal-soda or washing soda, from GO cents
10 50 cents; nitric Of soda, valuable
both as q medicine and for its nitrogen,
from 81 90 to 81 %; chlOrate OF potash
from u cents to - cents; OXalic acid,
from Is cents to 80 cents per pound;
quininc. from rs cents to 80 cents an
ounce caffeine, from $4.25 TO Sll.50 an
ounce: EPSON salts, from | 81 cents to
, 81 cent sa pound; oil of wintergreen
(artiticaD, from - cents to $500 a
pound; pcrmanganate OF potash, Il dis
infcctant. from II centS TO ! 30 4
pound; sodium salicylatc. used for
rheumatism. from % cents to - 4
pound; tlymol. a specific for hookworm,
from 81 20 to $3.50 an ounce; antipyrIn,
from 80 cents to $500 an ounce; phenOl-
thalcin, used both rs chemical red
Il
so cents To SIS Il pound. These are
chemicals, many of which came from
Germany, and their advance was usual
" direct result of the law Of supply
and demand and Of speculative hoard
ing.
.'Asprin is 4 compound of salicvlic
acid almost universally used for all
kinds of aches aud pains, and until 70
Gently the patent on the drug was held
| by q German firm. Shortly after the
| outbreak Of the war it began to rise
spasmodicaliy until under its unpat-
| entcd title. it caromed from % cents a
pound TO $l.25 a pound. For be it
| known. aspirin, OF a lineage slightly
| different from the German article
sometimes travelled incoguito as acctyl
| Sahcyle acid and was identical in CIV
crythmg save name and price
''Carholic acid is really the parent
substance Of these aspirin and salicy
late preparations, and, as eyerybod !,
| knows, it is also IN excellent and
much-uscd sargical antiseptic-twt
good reasons why the price should gy
rate when war broke out; and gyrat,
it did. From - cents pound 10 ,.
the pendulum oNcillatcd. Now it i
cheap once more at about - cents
pound. not more than 200 per cent high
en- than i'll 1914.
"The war bore heavily on bald.head
ed and nervous people. Practically al
hair tonics nowadays contain resorcii
ia coal-tar product we have AWAY
allowed Germany to make for us, an,
another cousin to carboic acid. From
) - to $50 rose the price of a pound o
resorcin, putting a sudden ddmper o.
the enthusiasts Of intensive scalp cuI
ture. And the bald found it costly t
be nervous over the advance. sinc
bromide of potassium, long used L
calm excited nerves, advanced from )
cents TO several dollars, and at on
: time il touched SIP a pound, Thes
excessively high prices were e2cculs
tive phenomena, and did not hold a
. the maximum level, though bromid,
a are still $l.20 a pound and rcsorci
= - pound
- Practically all remedies for I'll
\ roundworm of children contain san
1 tonin. Santouin ballooncd to dizz
heights in a few months-from &l3
80 Il pound. Ii i now relatively chea
at about so a pound. But a. a POM
would supply about II 600 doses we I
not need this drug iii carload lots,
Some Of the most remarkable q,
vanccs in price are seen in vegctab
drugs. Russian henbane is a source
hyoScinc, or scopolamine. an inarcdici
: in the much-cET Ioitcd "twilight Sleep
preparation. and this drug iumno
from cents q pound in 1914 to IS
pound in 1916.
Belladonua, from which atropine
madc-atropine the handmaiden of 4
| eye sPccialist--was cultivated for col