444 
The  War  and  Pharmacy.  (^octXV^T' 
Another  interesting  preparation  is  the  vegetable  milk.  Experi- 
ments with  the  milk-juice  of  the  Soya  bean,  the  walnut,  hazel-nut 
and  almond  are  claimed  to  have  proven  these  milks  fully  as  good 
as  cow's  milk.  Indeed,  they  separate,  upon  standing,  a  cream  which 
when  used  in  tea,  coffee  or  cocoa  imparts  the  same  taste  as  does 
cream  of  cow's  milk. 
Owing  to  the  scarcity  of  soap,  the  following  preparation  is 
widely  used :  Quillaja  bark,  100  Gm.,  is  heated  with  300  mils  of 
water  in  a  steam-bath  for  one  half  hour.  Filter  and  when  cool 
add  kaolin  400  Gm.  and  talcum  400  Gm.  Flavor  with  10  gtt.  of 
benzaldehyde. 
The  use  of  sodium  perborate  in  washing  powder  is  recommended. 
Glycerin,  of  course,  is  no  longer  obtainable  and  a  great  many 
substitutes  for  it  are  offered.  The  most  important  of  these  are 
offered  by  Dr.  P.  E.  Unna.  According  to  him,  glycerin  substitutes 
must  be  differentiated  as  to  the  purpose  for  which  the  preparations 
are  intended.  They  may  be  divided  into  four  classes :  (a)  solution 
of  salts;  (b)  solutions  of  sugar;  (c)  solutions  of  gums;  (d)  solu- 
tions of  oils.  A  solution  of  iodine  in  glycerin  to  be  used  for  paint- 
ing ulcers  and  wounds  is  replaced  by  a  solution  of  iodine  in  simple 
syrup.  Glycerin  as  a  softener  for  the  skin  is  replaced  by  a  mixture 
of  equal  parts  of  anhydrous  eucerin  and  concentrated  solution  of 
calcium  chloride.  As  laxative  or  enema,  glycerin  can  be  replaced 
(and  it  is  claimed  very  effectively)  by  ordinary  brown  syrup  mixed 
with  two  to  four  times  its  volume  of  milk. 
To  replace  saltpeter  in  asthma  remedies,  they  use  sodium  nitrate, 
potassium  chlorate  or  sodium  perborate.  Liquid  paraffin  mixed 
with  spermaceti  replaces  vaselin.  Rhamnus  purshiana  is  replaced  by 
cortex  frangulse ;  oil  of  turpentine  by  benzol  mixtures ;  tamarind  by 
prune ;  starch  in  powders  and  pastes  by  talcum ;  tea  by  strawberry 
leaves ;  lycopodium  by  a  colored  starch,  etc. 
You  can  readily  imagine  what  the  troubles  of  the  German  or 
Austrian  pharmacist  must  be!  A  constant  search  for  "something 
just  as  good." 
That  the  serious  war-time  has  not  yet  killed  the  sense  of  humor 
of  the  Germans  is  evidenced  by  an  answer  to  a  proposal  to  declare 
two  days  a  week  as  "  medicine-less  "  days  to  save  the  supply  of  medi- 
cines. The  answering  correspondent  of  a  pharmaceutical  journal 
declares  that  it  would  be  necessary  in  order  to  make  medicine-less 
days  effective  to  also  declare  "  sickness-less  "  days.    He  also  adds 
