CHINESE DRUGGIST AND HIS CHEMISTS : S00CH0W, CHINA 



Although thymol occurs in the oils of horsemint, thyme and wild thyme, which are com- 

 mon in many parts of this country, the world goes all the way to India for its supply of this 

 important drug, so essential in the treatment of the hook-worm disease. It is prepared from 

 ajowan oil, a volatile product obtained from the seed of a plant that is cousin alike to celery 

 and coriander. 



thur Linton, in his scholarly monograph 

 in the Journal of the American Pharma- 

 ceutical Association, quotes from Hak- 

 luvt a letter of a traveler of the sixteenth 

 century who visited Cairo : 



"Without the city," he wrote, "are to 

 be seen divers pyramids among which are 

 three marvelous great tombs. Out of 

 them are daily digged the bodies of an- 

 cient men not rotten but all whole. And 

 these dead bodies are the mummies which 

 the Phisitians and Apothecaries do, 

 against our will, make us to swallow." 

 Dried mummy was a favorite remedy in 

 the sixteenth century : it is something to 

 know that patients were made to swallow 

 it against their will ! 



THE CAMPHOR INDUSTRY 



Camphor, which is important not only 

 in medicine but in the arts and manu- 

 factures, was an example of efficient pro- 

 duction and control of output. After the 

 Japanese-Chinese War, Japan obtained 



control of the Formosa camphor in- 

 dustry. Although the Formosa forests 

 are practically inexhaustible, forestry 

 measures were instituted for replanting 

 and care of trees ; 2,000 police were fur- 

 nished to protect workers and large re- 

 fining plants were built. Workers were 

 paid a fixed sum. The distribution of 

 the entire product was let by contract and 

 the right of sale awarded an English firm, 

 the latter contracting to conduct the sale 

 of camphor in New York, London, Ham- 

 burg, and Hongkong, and to accept from 

 Japan a definite amount of camphor each 

 year. The closing of the port of Ham- 

 burg has not, however, demoralized the 

 trade. In July, 1914, American refined 

 camphor sold at 44^2 cents per pound in 

 barrel lots. In 1916 it had advanced to 

 90 cents. 



Tragacanth. used in making mucilage 

 and toilet creams, advanced from $1.20 

 to $2.25 ; sesame oil from Alexandria, 

 from 38 cents per gallon in 1914 to 65 



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