June i, 1892,] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
945 
aEHMAN V. ENGLISH MANUFACTUKINO CHEMISTS AND 
THE OPENING IN INDIA. 
My nttention has been called by Mr. T. Christy 
to an article which has appeared in a German 
Pbarraaoeutical Journal written in a dfpreoiatorv 
and unfair tone towards English chemists. I send 
you the translation which has been supplied tn 
me for publication, and apart from the replies 
and criticism which will no doubt be provokfd in 
India as well as Cevlon, I would only mention the 
case of Messrs. Kemp & Co. of Bombay, who mnnn- 
facture a large number of Indian preparations on 
the spot, and who even supply home wholeeal' 
drug houses with prepartions made from the fresh 
products of India. Altopether Mr. HelUn? deserves a 
good rap over the knucldes, and it may be a 
question whether he has ever been in the East at 
all. The paper is as follows : — 
A CHAT ABOUT INDIA. 
By H. Helling, London. 
Which appeared in the Phamaceutische.r Zeitung 
of Berlin, 4th Nov. 1892. 
{Translated hi/ a London friend for the "Ceylon Observer.") 
A great deal has been written about India ; and as 
far back as its history can be followed, new and 
wonderful things are heard of from time to time. 
To a chemist and druggist, India is a land of 
especial interest, not only because products of the 
country have been used as medicines since the oldest 
times, 'but because the drug export even up to the 
present day continually offers something new and 
brings its influence to bear upon the whole commerce 
of drugs ; take for example the influence exerted by 
I ast India cinchona bark. But the country is of far 
greater interest to the German apothecary, for in 
I5ritish India German influence has recently made 
itself conspicuous in a considerable manner. A few 
words therefore with regard to the conditions of 
commerce and the position especially of the drug 
commerce, may be not without interest, all the more 
so, as I have obtained the information (as far as the 
conditions of commerce are concerned) from authentic 
sources ; and I cannot do otherwise than express my 
thanks to Messrs. Collingwood and Schlesinger. Mr. 
Collingwood only lately returned from lengthy travels 
in India and is well up in the drug trade, whereas 
Mr. Schlesinger has had an experience of many years 
in the drug trade, and both occupy themselves with 
the introduction of rare and new drugs. Starting 
from the fact that British India has a population of 
between 200 to 300 millions ; this sufficiently proves 
of what importance such a country must be to com- 
merce. 
Until a few years back its trade lay in the hands 
of Englishmen and natives. Englishmen imported 
and exported, whereas the native has exported and 
found a sale for their produce in India. These con- 
ditions have gone through a mighty change of late 
and it is chiefly German firrns that have the import 
trade to a great extent in their hands, competition 
driving English goods more and more out of the 
field. 
The reasons for this are plain. The English are 
used to high profits in India since ages back, and 
they had hardly any occasion to deviate from this, 
as the wants of India were completely monopolised 
by Kticland directly or indirectly, for tliere is no 
doiilit that since a considerable time many Continental 
goods wore brought to India througli English houses. 
Tlio ever-increasing competition together with the 
interest for colonial trade, has caused the German 
houses to take foreign commerce more and more into 
consideration, and what formerly seldom occurred 
and was hardly noticed by Englishmen has now be- 
come an unalterable fact viz, the successful appearance 
of Gorman houses of commerce in India. The chief 
reason for this success of German industry is to bo 
found in cheap prices, which of course outweigh every- 
thing else from a native's point of view. To a native 
the chief condition is cheapness, once more cheap- 
ness and again cheapness. Quality does not come into 
consideration at all, they will buy small quantities of 
cheap things today and when used up will buy again 
without considering whether a dearer article might 
not have lasted longer. Moreover a German adapts 
himself more to the demand of the public and sup- 
plies to the native traders things made according 
to their wishes. He is not like the English who 
manufacture their goods as they think best, 
without attending to any of the wishes of the 
buyers. This is also especially the case with phar- 
maceutical and medicinal utensils such as surgical in- 
struments, thermometers, glassware, etc., which are 
often supplied by Germans at a quarter of the price 
at which English houses offer them. A large field is 
open in British India for Germans, all the more so if 
I they can settle down in the country with capital. 
Chemical industry in India and the manufacture of 
pharmaceutical preparations do not exist. Everything 
is imported into the country instead of being produced 
in the country itself. 
The alcohol industi'y is as good as non-existing. 
The only thing made by everybody is artificial mineral 
water, and as this represents about the highest step 
of chemical industry there, it indicates how very 
backward manufacturing is in India. There is an 
opportunity for many a German chemist and druggist 
or manufacturer to work out new enterprises in the 
country and draw out the profits. When we consider 
that the native medical man and apothecary having 
only the crude products is obliged to take his supplies 
of all other preparations such as tinctures, extracts, 
chemicals, etc. from Europe, there remains no doubt 
that a golden future is beckoning many as hardly 
anything in the way of galenical preparations is made 
by the wholesale or European druggists of India 
themselves. It is a fact that many an Indian drug 
must travel first to Europe to be made into a tincture 
and as such be taken back to India again. This 
"keeping back " of industry is in strong contrast with 
the rising of other countries, for instance Japan 
which makes an Iodide of Potassium superior in 
Eurity to the English and equal to the best German 
rands. As regards the buyers of imported goods it 
is astonishing that for the greater part they consist 
of native agents who sell their goods in poor looking 
booths in the bazaars and buy and sell in wholesale 
or retail quantities. Many of these people are rich 
and have enormous businesses ; most of the goods are 
transmitted to their clients direct. 
Among the native merchants in Bombay and its 
neighbourhood the Parsee or emigrant followers of 
Zoroaster take the first place as far as mercantile 
efficiency is concerned and are on a par with the 
Europeans. It is said that three Chinese are neces- 
sary to equal one Parsee, and the Chinese are known 
as thorough merchants. In the bazaars everything 
is classified according to the different guilds ; that is, 
we find the different branches of business together 
and the poison shops form a street for themselves. 
The business with every stranger is to a great extent 
simplified by the obliging manner in which he is 
received in the bazaars by the Parsees who with the 
other merchants for the most part speak English. 
A few more words about the Parsees with whom the 
Europeans have chiefly to do ; they are merchants 
on a large scale and have a liking for home life ; con- 
trary to Europeans they acquire landed property, tine 
country houses of European style, and fine horses. 
These are habits which hardly agree with many of 
their customs, as for instance the giving up of their 
dead to the vultures for food. In Calcutta and the 
surrounding districts the chief merchants are the 
Baboos wlio are said to be inferior to the Parsees. 
With regard to the quality of the chemicals intro- 
duced in almost all cases the requirements of the 
Britisli Pharmacopoeia are sufficient, altliough I know 
of cases where the Indian authorities put even higher 
requirements for instance that cocaine should stand 
McLagiu's test. An Indian Pharmacopoeia is in ex- 
istence, but chiefly for the sake of Indian drugs used 
by the native doctors. 
Native gentlemen continue to come in largo num- 
bers to England to study medicine where they pass 
the examinations and then of course prescribe quite 
in the English stylo. On looking at Dymock's " Vege. 
