Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  j 
October,  19 17.  > 
The  War  and  Pharmacy. 
447 
increase.  In  other  words,  it  will  be  more  expensive  to  do  a  certain 
amount  of  business  than  heretofore.  Also  let  us  remember  the 
inevitable  and  heavy  war  taxes  which  will  come  along. 
4.  It  is  not  at  all  impossible  that  a  governing  body  will  be  created 
to  control  our  business,  say  a  "  Ministry  of  Foods  and  Drugs," 
which  will  order  what  we  may  sell  and  what  not,  what  prices  we 
may  charge,  how  much  of  a  substance  we  may  keep  oh  hand,  etc. 
The  picture  of  our  immediate  future  is  scarcely  a  pleasing  one, 
but  you  know  what  Sherman  said  about  war  and  the  truth  of  this 
quotation  will  in  the  not  very  far  distant  future  be  brought  to  the 
realization  of  us  all. 
And  yet,  one  can  not  fail  to  see  the  bright  side  of  the  picture. 
I  find  it  in  the  tremendous  impulse  given  by  the  war's  necessities  to 
pharmaceutical  endeavor.  The  old  proverb  that  necessity  is  the 
mother  of  invention  is  again  proven  true.  While  the  large  number 
of  new  remedies  proposed  are  principally  for  army  use,  some  will 
no  doubt  prove  of  great  general  value.  Quite  unexpected  was  the 
development  of  preparations  of  insecticidal  value,  especially  for  the 
louse.  Lice  have  been  found  to  be  carriers  of  spotted  fever  and 
lice-killers  are,  therefore,  of  great  importance.  The  Germans  use 
a  vinegar  of  savadilla,  the  French  an  ointment  containing  10  per 
cent,  of  oil  of  stavesacre,  the  English  have  an  N.T.C.  mixture,  com- 
posed of  naphthalene  96  parts,  creosote  2  parts,  and  iodoform  2 
parts. 
Numberless  new  methods  and  preparations  for  the  cleansing  and 
healing  of  wounds  have  been  created  by  the  war.  I  mention  only 
the  method  proposed  by  Dr.  Carrel  of  continuous  irrigation  with 
hypertonic  saline  solution,  or  of  frequent  dressings.  A  so-called 
"  Bipp  Paste  "  composed  of 
Bismuth  Subnitrate    1.0 
Iodoform   2.0 
Liquid  Paraffin    q.s. 
is  now  claimed  to  give  incomparably  better  results  than  the  above 
method. 
A  new  ointment  tried  out  in  the  Royal  Army  Medical  Corps  has 
been  found  to  be  excellent  for  burns  and  cases  of  "  trench- feet." 
Its  composition  is  the  following : 
