DEARER DRUGS

SOME LINES CUT OFF GERMANY THE CHIEF SOURCE OF SUPPLY. SHORTAGE OF OPIUM PRODUCTS AND DISINFECTANTS.

Recently, as stated in Tho Po&t, the wholesale pi ice of dings was advanced 10 per cent , and the shortage of sup* plies has made fiirlln»i' increases neces savy. which, of course. lr*s had to be handeil en to the consumer. Indeed, thn drug and chemical market appeals to I have been more sei'ioiibiy affected by the war than any of the other maikets. owing to the groat calls made upon certain lines to allrviatu the sufferings of, the aimies of the combatants, aad the totil cutting off of some of the supplies. To a Post reporter to-day the manager of a large wholesale firm stated that at tho present time Germany was off the map as far as a source of supply of anything in the way of drugs and chemicals was concerned. Germany was tho leading producer in the world in this class of goods. Irrespective of the fact that a large portion, of the goods cams fiom England the raw material in some shape or form came from Germany. To make the position worse as far as New Zealand was concerned was the fact that the British Government had placed an embargo on the exportation of all hospital supplies — and "hospital supplies" was a very wide term. Germany was the place of origin of most of the. minerals from which chemicals such as magnesiums and potassiums were manufactured. Tho Germans had made a more comprehensive study of chemistry than any other nation in' the world, and they had the largest chemical manufactories thefe. To show what a hold the Germans had on chemical manufactures, the informant quoted one line which the Americans commenced to manufacture at 3d a lb lower than the German price. The Ger- j mans then brought the price down from 3s to lOd, and it was questionable whether the Americans were now making that particular line. With Germany cut off, added the manager, tho only other country to be looked to was America, and America was .not a chemical manufacturing nation. While the Am* eiicans made a number of medicinal prepaiations, their own supply of chemicals | was drawn largely from Germany and England. Consequently, America was practically a secondhand market. Witii regard to dressings the same thing applied. Although America was the home of cotton, the Germans manufactured dressing far cheaper than the States did. Supplies of these lines would be drawn on enormously, and prices must advance vevy considerably. ! Anaestlieticsf continued the informant, had been very seriously affected, and at the outbreak of the war cabled advice wae received that morphia and its derivatives had gone up in price 100 per cent. \ Another live of a, different nature, but very largely used, had soared from 36s 6d per 1001b to £7 10s per hundred, an increase of about 400 per cent. "It is not, however, a question of prices," he added, "but a question of being abl& to get some lines at all." A leading chemist, interviewed on the same subject, explained that the Government hacl purchased an enormous quantity of bandages, medicines, and d'sinfectanls, and this had had the effect of seriously shortening supplies. Opium preparations were in great* demand in connection with the hostilities in Europe, and the result would bo that the price of morphia salts would rise tremendously. The health of an army when big bodies of men were placed in the field was of the primest importance, and the demand for disinfectants would be colossal. Already the British Government had prohibited the export of certain lines of this nature, and such a prohibition would be followed by a shoitage in other parts of tho world. Surgical dressings, such as lints, cotton wool, bandages, and gauzes, were most imperative for field hospital purposes, and already there was a great shortage in the local market. As i mating the jump iv price of disinfectants, the chemist quoted one line for which he was paying 5s a. week ago. as against 6s 3d at present. "The public must be prepared for a solid increase in the prices of all medicinal preparations, whether patent or otherwise," he remarked, "because there will be an increase in the cost of the raw /material. The chemists ha-ve decided, as far as possible, not to increase the cost of prescription work, and the only increases will be where expensh c drugs are used. The usual Boz bottle, so long as the chemibt caai manage, it, will continue to be sold at 2s 6d.''