THE GEOGRAPHY OF MEDICINES 



War's Effect Upon the World's Sources of Supply 

 By John Foote, M. D. 



WHEN the war cloud burst in 

 Europe a sudden paralysis of 

 credit temporarily engulfed the 

 Western World. As business relations 

 were restored, ocean travel resumed, and 

 traders set aside the sense of danger, cer- 

 tain secretive individuals crossed from 

 Europe, keeping to themselves and avoid- 

 ing smoking-room conversation, using 

 the wireless overmuch, and receiving 

 daily aerograms in private code. They 

 were speculators, gamblers, these ner- 

 vous, anxious-looking unknowns, not 

 dealers in war materials nor food, but 

 speculators in drugs — the kind of things 

 that you and I so frequently buy in the 

 corner drug store. 



To gain possession of existing stores 

 of German manufactures, and especially 

 German patented chemicals, was the 

 game these gentlemen played, and at such 

 enormous profits as to make the plungers 

 in "war brides" of later days seem con- 

 servative bankers by comparison. For 

 instance, the speculator who in July, 191 4, 

 invested $1,000 in antipyrin, used exten- 

 sively in headache remedies, would in 

 19 1 5 or 1916 have a profit on his pur- 

 chase of $19,000, with no possible chance 

 of a slump in the market. This was prac- 

 tically true of all patented German medi- 

 cinal chemicals in general use, as well as 

 many substances necessary in the arts and 

 sciences. 



Xo merchant sells more diversely born 

 or more widely traveled merchandise 

 than the pharmacist, and accordingly no 

 business is so quickly disorganized when 

 trade routes are disturbed as the import- 

 ing and distributing of drugs ; for the ar- 

 teries of trade are like the arteries of the 

 human body — sensitive throughout to any 

 change in the volume of flow in even the 

 most remote branch. 



The law of supply and demand applies 

 likewise to drugs ; therefore it would be 

 as natural to expect a rise in German 

 chemicals as to look for an increase in 

 the cost of coal if all the mines stopped 

 working for a year. 



For a time no marked change occurred 

 in drugs imported from neutral lands, 

 for there were large stocks on hand ; but 

 as trade routes were disturbed by the 

 closing of old markets and the difficulties 

 of transportation increased, due to haz- 

 ards of the sea, and consequently ware- 

 house stocks were exhausted, slowly but 

 surely came the upward swing in the cost 

 of dozens of crude drugs and their by- 

 products — drugs which are gathered in 

 strange nooks and in hidden corners of 

 the world as far from the clash and the 

 turmoil of battles as ever they could be. 



"east is east and west is west" 



It is many a weary mile from the an- 

 cient Persian city of Herat, in Afghanis- 

 tan, to the Western war front, as it is 

 from the Western war front to the East 

 Side of New York, and the men of the 

 Four Tribes had never heard of "Aloe 

 Klipstick, nor of the druggist at the cor- 

 ner of Third avenue ; yet each was re- 

 lated to the other in terms of world com- 

 merce, and I will tell you how. 



Morgab the Younger, like his ancestors 

 of the Four Tribes, went down yearly 

 from the old city of Herat, midway be- 

 tween the mountains and the Persian 

 desert, to the arid plains, which, after the 

 rains, waxed rich in verdure, because it 

 was here that, with much back-bending, 

 he incised the Ferula root and obtained 

 its milky gum, which he sold to traders in 

 the market-place of his native city that 

 they might, in turn, send it far away, 

 whither and why he knew not nor cared. 



Around the caravan fires at night he 

 had heard mutterings of a great war be- 

 tween the Russians and some other un- 

 believers, and though trading was better 

 since the Russian railroad had come to 

 within 65 miles of Herat, across the 

 mountains, yet he did not like those Mus- 

 covites ; so, Allah be praised ! let them 

 fight among themselves ; it was well they 

 should. It could not hurt him ! 



Months passed, and one day, after an 

 absence on the plains searching out and 



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