Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
October,  19 17.  -* 
The  War  and  Pharmacy. 
443 
tisement  for  help  asks  for  lady  pharmacists.  It  seems,  then,  that 
female  help  is  being  employed  in  German  pharmacies  on  an  un- 
precedented scale.  In  many  stores  the  proprietor  will  manage  to 
get  along  without  any  assistant  whatsoever. 
All  chemicals  of  any  use  to  the  government  have  been  seized. 
Pharmacists  are  permitted  to  have  on  hand  certain  fixed  amounts 
only.  This  fact,  together  with  the  great  difficulty  of  import,  owing 
to  the  English  blockade,  explains  the  veritable  flood  of  substitutes 
which  we  find  recommended  in  the  pharmaceutical  press.  We  find 
substitutes  for  soaps,  starch,  rubber,  honey,  baking  powder,  coffee, 
cocoa,  tea,  pepper,  oil,  varnish,  glycerin,  eggs,  jam,  soups,  butter, 
sugar,  candies,  glue  and  many  others.  Some  of  these  substitutes, 
especially  some  of  those  offered  under  proprietary  or  trade  names, 
have  been  found  to  be  rank  fakes.  For  example,  a  salad-oil  sub- 
stitute was  upon  analysis  found  to  be  a  solution  of  gum  in  water, 
colored  yellow  with  a  coal-tar  dye  and  having  a  food  value  of  only 
1/240  of  that  of  oil. 
Of  particular  interest  to  us  are  substitutes  for  necessary  pharma- 
ceuticals and  I  will  mention  a  few  of  them. 
In  place  of  tincture  of  iodine,  a  5  or  10  per  cent,  solution  of 
tannic  acid  in  95  per  cent,  alcohol  is  recommended. 
In  order  to  save  lard  or  edible  fats,  the  following  is  recommended 
as  a  base  for  liniments  and  ointments : 
Liquid  Paraffin    460.00  Gm. 
Olein    90.00  Gm. 
Oil  of  Rape  Seed    130.00  Gm. 
Ammonia  Water,  duplex    150.00  Gm. 
Lime  Water    100.00  Gm. 
Water   50.00  Gm. 
Whoever  has  liquid  vaseline  on  hand  may  use  the  following 
formula : 
Liquid  Vaseline    535-00  Gm. 
Rape  Seed  Oil    100.00  Gm. 
Olein   85.00  Gm. 
Ammonia  Water,  duplex    135.00  Gm. 
Lime  Water    100.00  Gm. 
Water    45-00  Gm. 
Both  preparations  are  claimed  to  be  readily  miscible  with  chloro- 
form and  could,  therefore,  be  used  as  basis  for  chloroform  liniment. 
