Increased Cost of Drugs
By L. A. R.
THE United States, according to a New York manufacturer, depends on Europe for seventy-five per cent of its supply of drugs. Europe, otherwise occupied this year, is not producing more than a very small fraction of the normal supply of herbs and other plants that go to make up most of the household remedies. Because of the embargo on shipments, only a small part even of these products come across the ocean. Furthermore, the necessity for drugs is much more widespread in Europe now than in a time of peace. Quinine costs five times as much to-day as it did a short time ago. In two weeks, the wholesale price rose from forty cents an ounce to $2.25. Camomile tea leaves have advanced thirty-five cents a pound. Horehound herb has jumped from six cents to fifteen; and licorice, imported from Smyrna, has risen from six cents to twenty. Cod-liver oil, despite its name, is made from crude oils, which come from Norway, not Boston. The cost of the crude product has advanced from $40 to $80 a barrel. Other advances in price may be noted: permanganate of potash, twelve cents to $1.15; olive oil, fifty cents to seventy-five cents a gallon; Russian cantharides, seventy-five cents to $4.00; dog grass, six to sixty cents a pound.