It is difficult for us to-day to realize that it was not until after 1825, when the American surgeon, Beaumont, made his carefully con ducted observations upon the phenomena of digestion in the living stomach, that the func tions of the gastric juice were revealed. His investigations, which lasted until 1833, stimu lated and suggested the course for subsequent researches, and, in 1836, when the active prin ciple of the gastric juice was discovered by Schwann, he gave it the name of °pepsin.* From a commercial point of view, thg history of pepsin in America begins with the ihtroduction of Scheffer's pepsin, in 1872. This preparation was made by a simple and practical method known as the °salt° process, and it was a great improvement over all of the older methods of obtaining the ferment from the stomach. A few years later, about 1879, the original form of pepsin in scales, (if ree from added substances or reagents?) was introduced by Fairchild, and the advent of this preparation of phenomenal strength had the effect of causing great activity in the manufacture and improvement of the commercial pepsins. The practical recognition and application of pancreas ferments is due to the efforts of Fairchild, who, in 1880, introduced the extractum pancreatis, containing diastase for the conversion of starch, trypsin for the conversion of albumen, and emulsifying fer ment for the digestion of fats, and the milk curdling ferment, a preparation which proved to be of great utility, especially in the artificial digestion of foods for the sick, and in the prep aration of foods for infants. Basing his theo ries upon the indigestibility of starch, Liebig proposed that the farinaceous foods which were commonly used with milk as food for in fants should first be digested into soluble form by the use of malt diastase, while, in 1884, Fair child proposed a method by which cows' milk might be Modified and adjusted to a closer re semblance to human milk by the conversion of caseine, by the use of trypsin, to the soluble and peptone-like bodies for which the latter milk is peculiar.
The first improvement upon the antiquated method of applying plasters to the human body was the invention of an india-rubber porous plaster by Dr. Shecut, a naval surgeon. He sold his rights in the plaster to Thomas Allcock, and the latter, failing to make its manufacture profitable, sold it to Dr. Brandreth. At that time the only commercial plasters were made of isinglass and resinous mixtures, some of which were spread on cloth and plaster skins. It was about 1867 that Seabury & Porter began the experiments which finally resulted in the use of rubber in medicinal and surgical plasters.
It was in 1878 that Dr. R. M. Fuller, of New York, introduced another distinctively American form of medication under the name of °tablet triturates.° These were made by a method in which the active ingredient was triturated, or ground, with either plain sugar of milk, or with a mixture of sugar of milk and cane-sugar, into a paste which was pressed into tablets in suitable molds. By this process it was possible to administer small quantities of such potent remedies as alkaloids, concentrations, etc., in a convenient, palatable, and readily soluble form. Unique as the idea was, it immediately became so popular with the medical profession that the manufacturers began to produce them upon an enormous scale, one manufacturer alone having no less than 500 different varieties of these tab lets on his price-list.
Great as have been the developments along individual lines, however, it is only by reference to statistics that we can gain any idea of the magnitude of the commerce to which the mod ern drug trade has attained. The United States
government kept no record of the imports and exports• in•drugs until 1830, and even then the list was confined to a few items. In 1830, the exports from the United States were stated to be $130,238, while in 1835 they were reported as being about $200,000. In 1916 the exports of patent medicines alone amounted to a value of $8,397,971, and of roots, barks and herbs, a value of $768,977. These figures by no means show the total value of medicinal preparations sold abroad. The government reports include such commodities with °chemicals) in such a way that they cannot be separated. The im ports may be traced somewhat closer, and, omit ting the inorganic and mineral substances used both in medicine and the arts, the government figures for the fiscal year ended 30 June 1916, show an importation of crude drugs and drug plants of 69,379,724 pounds, valued at $6,914,658. In addition, antitoxins, serums and vaccines valued at $8,225 were imported. It should be noted in passing that previous to the European War the larger part of the drug supply of the world passed through the ports of London, Hamburg, and Trieste. The closing of the two latter ports almost completely demoralized the trade. In the United States prices speedily ad vanced as stocks diminished, and in some cases reached figures 1,000 per cent above the ante war prices. Movements to grow drug plants in the United States have been discouraged on the ground that the different climatic conditions would affect unfavorably the effective drug COIL-. tent, and that with the end of the war prices will fall below a remunerative point. Never+ theless the experiment is being made in several sections of the country.
Unfortunately there are no data from which we may estimate the number of druggists doing business in the United States at the beginning of the 19th century. The New York directory for 1786 mentions the names of only five. One druggist, Effingham Lawrence, was official apothecary to the Medical Society, a committee from which visited his store once every three months to certify that his drugs were genuine and his medicines properly prepared. Among the wholesale drug houses now in business in New York, one, founded more than a cen tury ago, by Jacob Schiefflin, in 1794, is still under the control of his descendants. The firm of Powers & Weightman, of Philadelphia, began business under the name of Farr & Kunzi, in 1818, while the first drug store in Washing ton was opened by Frederick Miller in 1796. The oldest drug house in the West is probably that of T. H. Hinchman & Sons, of Detroit, Mich. The earliest wholesale druggists in Chi cago were Dr. Clark, Dr. Brinkenhoff — now Peter Van Schaack & Sons — and Dr. John Sears, while among the other wholesale houses doing business in New York three-quarters of a century ago one may mention the firms of Lawrence & Keese, J. A. & W. B. Post, Thomas S. Clark, John & William Penfold, John M. Bradhurst, R. & S. Murray, Silas Carle, Olcott & McKesson, now represented by two firms, Dodge & Olcott and McKesson & Robbins, and John C. Morrison. Among the manufacturers of medicinal chemicals the following firms are worthy of mention ; Rosengarten & Son, of Philadelphia; Charles Cooper & Company, of New York; Charles Pfizer & Company, of New York; Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, of Saint Louis; Larkin & Scheffer, of Saint Louis; Herf & Frerichs Chemical Company, of Saint Louis, and the New York Quinine and Chemical Works.