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Show and handkerchiefs, shoe polish and playing play-ing cards nil products sold principally through American drug concerns. Civilians Civil-ians will be Interested in the prices at which the government is supplying these articles to Its lighting men. Here are some of them: Half-pound packages of chocolate, 11 cents; pocket combs. 6 cents; shaving terushes. 1" cents; tooth brushes, ll! cents, $5 safety razors, 1.75; talcum powder, 5 cents; shaving soap, -1 cents, and hand soap, 1 cent. And these are the price? lor the best grade of rrj.jds the government can possibly buy in this j country. For, German propagandists to the contrary notwithstanding, the medicil supply division is having no trouble in procuring all the drug supplies It needs for the army. f I ' Drugs for the Army By Frederic J. Haskin. WASHINGTON, D. C Kvery once In a while a rumor goes abroad that the American army is handicapped by a drug shortage. Sometimes it is quinine that is scarce, several times it has been iodine, and only a few weeks ago one heard that the American hospitals in Prance had run out of ether. The medical supply department of the surgeon general's office of-fice wishes to assure all the relatives of men at the front that there is absolutely nu foundation Iu these rumors that they , are merely another kind of German propaganda. It Is true that the tremendous quantities quan-tities of drug supplies required by the army have placed a considerable strain upon the nation's drug houses, but the drug manufacturers have been able to meet the emergency. As soon as it became be-came evident that the United States could not stay out of the war, the drug trade began to formulate plans for taking care of the needs of the army and navy. An association, known as the committee on preparedness of the association of manufacturers of medical products, was formed for the purpose of co-operatins with the government in the event of a declaration of war. This committee sent a questionnaire to every drug factory, asking just what that factory could do toward supplying the drug needs, of the government, and how It could he reorganized reorgan-ized for the production of drug materials essential to the war. Before this questionnaire was answered, however, the declaration of war came, and the committee on preparedness was summoned sum-moned to Washington to confer with the surgeon general of the army and navy, while plans for organizing the drug trade for war were developed by the council of national defense. The medical supplies needed by the government gov-ernment were divided into ten different classes, namely, medicines, antiseptics and disinfectants; surgical dressings, plasters and splints; medical and surgical instruments and appliances; dental instruments, in-struments, appliances and furniture; laboratory supplies; hospital bedding, clothing and furniture; cooking utensils and tableware; stationery; miscellaneous hospital supplies and miscellaneous field supplies. ' The medical department then held a separate conference with each class of manufacturers, explaining, its needs and pointing out that they must come first, that the needs of the allies ?irust be attended to second, and then the needs of civilians might be considered. The drug manufacturers thought that they had a fairly accurate conception of the drug needs of the army, but they found they were wrong. The medical department refused to talk of quantities less than a million, and some, of the specifications wore overwhelming. The manufacturers of surgical supplies, especially, espe-cially, went away from their conference with a desperate and bewildered look. Fortunately. hoV'ever, American sui-gical supply houses had greatly increased their capacity since the war in JCuropo hegan. Great Britain and France had been unable un-able to take care of their own needs in tho matter of surgical supplies and had turned to the American concei-ns for assistance. as-sistance. But by the time this country entered the war the demands of the allies had begun to slacken, so that the houses were In a good position to fill government govern-ment orders. The firs drug contract released hy the army medical department called for bandages of -all sizes, adhesive plaster, bichloride gauae, shell -wound dressing, ligatures of all kinds and absorbent cotton. cot-ton. The amount of gauze specified was 110,000.000 yards, and the surgical supply men were compelled to seek the assistance assist-ance of thirty spinning and weaving mills in supplving this order. Up to date, the army medical department has bought 3&ii,0i)0,000 yards of gauze. The tremendous tre-mendous size of this figure is better understood when you consider that It represents rep-resents 219,000 miles of gauze or enough to bandage The earth at the equator eight and a half times, with a piece left over that would stretch from New York to Rio de Janeiro. Ft-sides this, the order called for fi,-400,000 fi,-400,000 first-aid packets, packed in small khaki-colored metal boxes. The American soldier carries two of these first-aid packets pack-ets in his belt, as well as two 'of the same packets wrapped In rubber sheeting special first-aid packet is required for medical men, including, among other things, iodine swabs for swabbing wounJs ori thp field, and t5, 000,000 of these swabs must be supplied the medical department cverv three months. One and a half million mil-lion spools of adhesive plaster were another an-other item In this order. To the manufacturers of drugs an order fOT 20,000,000 quinine tablets was released. It is Interesting to note in this connection connec-tion that before the war the quinine supply sup-ply of the world was controlled by German Ger-man capitalists who had their headquarters headquar-ters in Amsterdam. Quinine was obtained from the cinchona forests of the Dutch Kast Indies; now American drug manufacturers manu-facturers are obtaining all they need from South Amer.ca. This Is only one of the many drugs formerly controlled by Germany Ger-many which are now being produced by other naions. One of the tarly drug contracts placed by the medical department called for 1 ,-744.'' ,-744.'' 00 separa'e units, weighing all the way from half an ounce to half a ton. Among ether things' was an item for 1.-OOO.flCO 1.-OOO.flCO sponges, at a cost of 9200000; In peace times it would have taken a drug house at !&S fix weeks to fill this order, but, organised for war. the house receiving receiv-ing the con'.mct worked day and r.ight, as Well as on Sundays, and completed the whole thing In ten days. This is only one instance of the splendid splen-did support given the army medical department de-partment by the drug trade a support without which the army would be dl6-tlnctly dl6-tlnctly handicapped in its treatment of casualties. The medical supply division of the army medical corps is handling 3. large proposition both at home and In France. It has a whole system of hospitals hos-pitals to supply with drug materials, besides be-sides which the quartermaster corps has recently organized a system of chaln stores among the American divisions carrying a popular line of goods of the variety exhibited in the city drug store. The object of these quartermaster depots is to supply our American troops with food and merchandise not included in the soldier's rations. Hence the variety vari-ety of :he goods carried is limited only by the desires of the soldier. If the arrny ration fails to satisfy his appetite, he can supplement it by buying any number of foodstuffs from this general store. A list of groceries sold in this way. recently issued is-sued by the quartermaster's department, includes fresh beef, ham, bacon, turkey, potatoes, rice, hominy, beans, onions, coffee, tea, sugar, cheese, cocoa, butter and evaporated fruits. Sweet foods, so popular with Americans, sucn as jams, j Jellies, raisins, apple butter, maple syrup, I citron and candy, are also provided. The government is shipping on the aerage SoOU.000 worth of candy to these stores every month, and it Is stated by men who " have returned from the front that the American soldier would rather have a box of candy as a reward for bravery than the crolx flfl guerre. But, In addition to foodstuffs, there is a steady demand for soap, shaving ttlcks, mirrors, razor strops, toilet water, talcum tal-cum powder, tooth brushes and tooth pojvdcr, witch hart!, pocket knives, toweltj |
