June I, 1892,] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
945 
OEBMAN V, ENOIilSH MANUFACTURING CHEMISTS AND 
THE OPENING IN INDIA. 
My attention has been oalled by Mr. T. Cbriety 
to an arliole which baa appeared in a German 
Pharmaeputioal Joarnal written in a depreeiatorr 
and unfair tone towards English chemists. I send 
you the translation which has been supplied to 
me for publication, and apart from the replies 
and criticism which will no dnubt be provoked in 
India as well as Ceylon. I would only mention the 
case of Messrs. Kemp dc Co. of Bombay, who manu- 
facture a larRB number of Indian preparations on 
the spot, and who even supply home wholesale 
druR houses with preparlions made from the fresh 
products of India. Altoeelher Mr. Helliu? deserves a 
good rap over the knucMes, and it may be a 
queation whether be has ever been in the East at 
all. The paper is as follows : — 
A CHAT ABOUT INDIA. 
By H. Hiu.wno, London. 
Which appeared in the Pharmaceutischfir Zeitung 
of Berlin, lUi Nov. 1892. 
{Trfnnstatfd bg a London f fiend for the ‘‘Cegfon Observer.”) 
A great deal has been rvritten about India ; and as 
far bock aa its history can lie 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 
countr.v 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 &ug8 ; take for example the influence exerted by 
last Lidia cinchona barlt. But the country is of far 
S eater interest to the German apothecary, for m 
ritiah India German influence has recently 
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 therawe 
BO, as I have obtained the information (as far as the 
conditions of comnieroe are concerned) from authentic 
sources: and I cannot do otherwise than express niy 
thanks to Messrs. Collingwood and Schlesinger. Mr. 
Collingwood only lately returnod from lengthy tovels 
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 .SOO millions ; this sufficiently proves 
of what importance such a country must be to ooro- 
"*TIntil 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^le for their produce in India, These con- 
ditions have gone through a mighty change of late 
and it is chiefly German firms that have the import 
trade to a great extent in thoir hands, competition 
driving English goods more and more out of the 
**®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 England directly or indirectly, for there is no 
doubt that since a considerable time many Continental 
goods were brought to India through English houses. 
The ©vet'increwiing 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 aoenrrod 
and was hardly noticed by Englishmen has now be- 
come an unalterable fact viz, the successful appearance 
of German houses of commerce in India. The chief 
reason for this success of German industry is to be 
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 Bgain cheapness. Quality does not come info 
consideration at all, tli^ 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 aecorffing 
to their wishes. He is not like the English who 
manufacture their goods as they think best, 
witbont attending to any of the wishes of the 
buyers. This is also especially the case with phar- 
maceutical and medicinal utensils such os surgical in- 
struments, thermometers, glassware, etc., which ace 
often snpplied by Germans at a quarter of the price 
at which Englisn houses offer them. A large field is 
open in British India for Germans, all the more so if 
they can settle down in the country with capital. 
Chemical industry in India and the manufacture of 
pharmaceutical preparations do not exist. Everything 
18 imported into the country instead of being produced 
in the country itself. 
The alcohol industry is ns 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 now very 
backward manufacturing is in India. There is an 
opportunity for many a Oennaii 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 proparatioiis such aa tinctures, extracts, 
chemicals, etc. from Europe, there remains no donbt 
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 
tnonisolvos. It is a fact that many an Indian drug 
must travel first to Europe to bo made into a tinctiire 
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 •Tapaii 
which makes an Iodide of Potassium superior in 
purity to the English and equal to the best German 
brands. As regards the buyers of imported goods it 
18 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 remil quantities. Many 01 these people are rich 
and have enormous businesses ; moat of the goods ore 
tr&nsniitted to their clients direct. 
Among the native merchants in Bombay and its 
neighbourhood the Parsee or emigrant followers of 
take the first place as far as mercantile 
^eiency is concerned and are on a par with the 
Europeans, It is said that three Chinese ore neces- 
sary to equal one Parsee, and the Chinese are known 
as thorough merchants. In the bazaars everything 
18 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 
Euroneans have chiefly to do; they are merchants 
on a larM scale and have a liking for home life ; con- 
trary to Europeans they acquire landed property flue 
country honaes of European style, and fine horses 
Ihese ore 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 
TOiToanding districts the chief merchants are the 
Baboos who are said to be inferior to the Paraecs 
With regard to the quality of the chemicals intro- 
duced in almost all cases the requirements of the 
British Pharmacopoeia are sufficient, although I know 
of COSOS where the Indian authorities put even higher 
requirements for instance that cocaine should stand 
McLa^in fl test. An Indian Phatmacopceia is in ex 
istence, bnt chiefly for the sake of Indian drugs useil 
by the native doctors. ® 
Native gentlemen continno to come in large num- 
bars to England to study medicine where they na« 
tee examinations and then of course prescribe quite 
in the Eiiglisli style. On looking at Dymock’a “ Vege 
