come in this war are due chronologically 

 to the blockade of Germany, in relation 

 to the enormous chemical manufacturing 

 industry of that country ; to speculation 

 in existing stocks at the outbreak of the 

 war; to the congestion of transportation 

 both by land and sea and terminal facili- 

 ties in belligerent countries ; to the re- 

 moval of blockaded shipping from world 

 trade, causing a shortage in sea trans- 

 ports ; to the destruction by commerce- 

 raiders of shipping and cargoes and the 

 high marine insurance and freight rates ; 

 to the diversion of labor to war purposes 

 from trades concerned with the gather- 

 ing, marketing, or manufacturing of 

 drugs and medicinal substances, and to 

 the accumulation of stocks of drugs by 

 army organization. 



some; prices compared 



It is interesting to compare some of the 

 prices per pound quoted in wholesale drug 

 trade bulletins in July, 1914, and then a 

 year later. Bleaching powder or "chloride 

 of lime" — used in the arts and as a dis- 

 infectant advanced from 1^ cents to 9 

 cents per pound ; sal-soda or washing 

 soda, from 60 cents to 85 cents ; nitrite 

 of soda, valuable both as a medicine and 

 for its nitrogen, from $1.90 to $3.25; 

 chlorate of potash, from 15 cents to 45 

 cents; oxalic acid, from 13 cents to 50 

 cents per pound ; quinine, from 16 cents 

 to 50 cents an ounce ; caffeine, from 

 $4.25 to $11.50 an ounce; epsom salts, 

 from 1^4 cents to 3% cents a pound; oil 

 of wintergreen (artificial), from 55 

 cents to $3.60 a pound; permanganate of 

 potash, a disinfectant, from 14 cents to 

 $1.50 a pound; sodium salicylate, used 

 for rheumatism, from 65 cents to $4 a 

 pound ; thymol, a specific for hookworm, 

 from $1.20 to $6.50 an ounce; antipy- 

 rin, from 30 cents to $3.00 an ounce ; 

 phenolthalein, used both as a chemical re- 

 agent and as a laxative medicine, from 

 80 cents to $48 a pound. These are 

 chemicals, many of which came from 

 Germany, and their advance was usually 

 a direct result of the law of supply and 

 demand and of speculative hoarding. 



A ROSE BY ANOTHER NAME 



Aspirin is a compound of salicylic 

 acid almost universally used for all kinds 

 of aches and pains, and until recently the 

 patent on the drug was held by a German 



Photograph by Alfred Heinicke 



A "poppy PEEPER" COLLECTING POPPY 



JUICE IN THE CULTIVATION OF 



OPIUM : SHIRAZ, PERSIA 



These trained observers look within the flowers 

 to judge of their maturity 



firm. Shortly after the outbreak of the 

 war it began to rise spasmodically until, 

 under its unpatented title, it caromed 

 from 32 cents a pound to $1.25 a pound. 

 For be it known, aspirin, of a lineage 

 slightly different from the German ar- 

 ticle, sometimes traveled incognito as 

 acetyl-salicylic acid, and was identical in 

 everything save name and price. 



HARD ON THE BALD-HEADED 



Carbolic acid is really the parent sub- 

 stance of these aspirin and salicylate 

 preparations, and, as everybody knows, it 

 is also an excellent and much-used surgi- 

 cal antiseptic — two good reasons why the 

 price should gyrate when war broke out ; 

 and gyrate it did. From 25 cents a pound 



229 



