98 



THE IMPORTATION OF COLONIAL PRODUCE. 



By E. M. Holmes, Curator of the Museum of the Pharmaceutical 

 Society of Great Britain. * 



1 take the opportunity offered by the extensive colonial and foreign 

 circulation of Journal to direct the attention of pharmacists and others 

 who reside abroad or in the British Colonies to a few ficts which bear 

 an important relation to the sale of colonial products in this country. 



L Drugs — It is absolutely necessary, in order to avoid loss, to be 

 well informed as to the state of the large European markets, especially 

 London, Liverpool, Hamburg, and New York, etc. As an instance I 

 may point to the genuine or Pernambuco jaborandi, Pilocarpus jaboran- 

 di, which is now, I am told, realising 7s or 8s perlb., against Is 6d per lb. 

 for the Rio Janeiro jaborandi, P '. pinnati 'folium ; Pernambuco jaborandi, 

 which is now the only official kind, having partially disappeared from 

 the market. The reason of this is that, when the genuine jabor- 

 andi was last sent to this country, the market was overstocked with the 

 Rio Janeiro kind, and there were no buyers for the genuine, except at a 

 price that entailed a decided loss on the exporters. Consequently, the 

 exporters having lost money, sent no more, and the drug gets scarcer 

 and scarcer and the price goes up. Drugs are not like provisions. 

 There is not room for an unlimited supply, and the export to European 

 Markets, if it is not to entail loss upon the producer and exporter, must 

 bear a direct relation to the state of the market. But it is to the in- 

 terest of the buyers to buy cheaply, and early information is not likely 

 to be obtainable except through colonial agents in Europe, paid to look 

 after the interests of their respective colonies. 



2. New Vegetable Remedies. — frequently specimens of native rem- 

 edies are sent home on speculation, without any details as to their botan- 

 ical source and in very small quantities. Under these circumstances it 

 is useless to hope that they will receive attention. It requires at least 

 14 lb. or 28 lb. of the material to ascertain if any definite active prin- 

 ciple is present, and unless the drug possesses decided properties and 

 differs from other drugs alrea J y in use in its remedial effects, it is not 

 likely to be experimented with. Thus, pure bitters, simple purgatives, 

 or emetics are not needed ; but remedies that are known to be actually 

 of service in skin diseases, malarial fevers, or zymotic diseases (and 

 which do not owe their properties to the hot water in which they are 

 administered), might receive a trial if sent in sufficient quantity and if 

 a portion of the plant having leaves, flower, and fruit be sent with them 

 for identification. Medical men are chary of trying remedies of which 

 nothing but the native name and use is known. It may, therefore, be 

 taken as a rule that not less than 28 lb to 1 cwt. is worth sending for a 

 trial. 



/ 



3. Drugs other than Medicines. — Gums, resins, oils, fats, dye woods 

 tanning materials, and other economic products, if sent over in the form 

 •of samples of 14 lb. or more, should be sent with full information as to 



* Letter to the Pharmaceutical Journal. 



