Am.  Tour.  Pharm. 
June,  1919. 
Pharmaceutical 
Products  in  France. 
393 
nearly  all  these  organic  products  depends  upon  a  cheap  supply  of 
primary  materials,  such  as  mineral  acids,  caustic  alkalis  and  chlo- 
rine. These  materials  are  likewise  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
aniline  colors  and  synthetic  perfumes,  and  it  is  in  this  whole  field 
that  development  is  needed,  for  the  production  of  pharmaceutical 
products  is  only  auxiliary  to  the  manufacture  of  dyes. 
It  was  principally  from  the  German  chemical  dye  works  that 
pharmaceutical  products  were  issued  before  the  war.  One  great 
service  which  the  war  has  rendered  to  France  (and  incidentally  to 
Great  Britain)  is  that  it  has  made  both  nations  producers  of  these 
primary  materials  at  first  hand.  The  factories  that  have  produced 
for  war  must  now  produce  for  peace.  Works  that  can  produce  elec- 
trolytic chlorine  cheaply  will  be  best  able  to  make  chloral,  mono- 
chloracetic  acid,  benzoic  acid  and  phosgene.  The  present  makers 
of  benzene  and  phenol  can  turn  out  guaiacol  and  its  derivatives 
most  successfully.  From  cyanamide,  urea  can  be  obtained  ;  from 
toluene,  saccharin ;  from  naphthalene  and  oleum,  phthalic  acid ; 
from  amyl  alcohol,  valerianic  acid ;  and  so  on. 
But  although  it  is  necessary  to  encourage  by  all  possible  means 
the  development  of  chemistry  in  France,  it  is  no  less  indispensable 
to  warn  manufacturers  that  pharmaceutical  products  cannot  be  pro- 
duced with  a  small  plant  and  scant  material.  They  require  a  per- 
fected plant,  the  processes  must  be  scrupulously  attended  to,  and 
above  all  there  must  be  facilities  for  disposing  of  the  by-products 
to  good  account.  "  One  does  not  manufacture  a  pharmaceutical 
product."  says  M.  Detoeuf,  "  one  manufactures  all  the  products 
appertaining  to  the  same  series  and  dependent  on  the  same  crude 
material." 
2.  It  was  by  means  of  trade-marked  or  patented  medicinal  prepa- 
rations that  the  Germans  formerly  invaded  the  French  market. 
With  the  German  manufacturer  even-  new  organic  or  mineral  de- 
rivative was  a  potential  material  for  a  medicament.  Intensive  re- 
search in  the  factory  laboratories  and  systematic  experiment  in 
their  laboratories  of  therapeutic  physiology,  enabled  them  to  recog- 
nize to  a  certainty  such  products  as  were  endowed  with  special 
therapeutic  activity.  The  process  of  manufacture  was  then  pat- 
ented in  Germany,  and  if  possible  in  France,  no  mention  being 
made  of  therapeutic  properties.  Then  the  product  was  put  on  the 
market  under  cover  of  a  marque  dcposce  and  introduced  to  medical 
men. 
