Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  19 18. 
Medicinal  Plant  Supplies. 
407 
have  separated  the  essential  from  the  non-essential,  and,  acting 
under  the  provisions  of  the  Trading  with  the  Enemy  Act,  a  number 
of  American  firms  have  procured  licenses  to  manufacture  a  number 
of  organic  drugs,  using  enemy-controlled  patents.  In  this  list  are 
three  of  the  most  important  synthetics  used  by  the  medical  pro- 
fession, viz.,  barbital,  procaine  and  arsphenamine,  which  have  re- 
spectively replaced  veronal,  novocaine,  and  salvarsan. 
In  the  second  place  German  manufacturers  were  successful  in 
securing  special  privileges  which  were  beneficial  to  the  foreign 
manufacturer  and  inimical  to  the  development  of  American  indus- 
tries. This  was  in  part  due  to  the  decisions  of  the  patent  office  and 
also  to  the  inedaquate  tariff  protection.  We  have  placed  a  protective 
tariff  upon  our  steel  industry  and  consequently  made  it  the  wonder 
of  the  world  and  have  established  it  so  thoroughly  that  we  no  longer 
fear  competition  from  any  country.  We  have  blindly  failed  to  see 
the  wonderful  possibilities  in  the  similar  protection  and  develop- 
ment of  the  chemical  industries.  Without  enlarging  on  this  ques- 
tion there  is  every  indication  that  the  United  States  Congress  has 
fully  grasped  the  situation  and  will  see  to  it  that  American  indus- 
tries are  encouraged,  and  that  in  the  future  American  industries  will 
be  coordinated  with  the  life  of  the  nation. 
Coming  to  the  subject  of  the  Present  and  Future  Supplies  of 
Medicinal  Plants  which  I  have  been  requested  to  consider,  the  Con- 
ditions in  this  country  during  the  past  three  years  have  been  simi- 
lar to  those  outlined  in  a  general  way,  and  the  outlook  is  exceedingly 
promising.  The  most  serious  drawback  is  the  one  involving  the 
employment  of  labor.  Then  there  is  the  uncertainty  involving  the 
specific  substances  required  and  the  quantities  which  may  be  needed. 
This  is  exemplified  to  some  extent  in  the  gathering  of  digitalis 
leaves  in  the  western  United  States.  Certain  of  our  western  uni- 
versities have  been  acting  as  collecting  points  for  the  gathering  of 
wild-grown  digitalis.  This  work  has  been  done  on  the  one  hand  in 
behalf  of  the  National  Council  of  Defense,  and  on  the  other  for  the 
use  of  the  Red  Cross.  From  information  which  has  just  come  to 
my  hand  there  is  sufficient  digitalis  growing  wild  in  the  western  part 
of  Washington  state  to  supply  several  times  over  the  entire  demand 
for  this  drug  in  the  United  States.  In  addition  digitalis  is  very 
abundant  in  the  western  part  of  Oregon  and  British  Columbia.  Be- 
fore the  war  this  was  allowed  to  go  to  waste  and  practically  all  that 
was  used  in  the  United  States  was  imported  from  Europe.  Since 
