The price of rhubarb root (a cathartic) last week rose to 65¢ a lb., up almost 200% in the past three weeks. Ephedrine (a nasal astringent), which hay fever sufferers this month are using everywhere, similarly shot up 200% to $3 an ounce. Mandrake root, which Elizabethans considered a cure for sterility and druggists now use in physics, soared to $4.25 a lb. These convulsions in the minor Oriental drug trade last week were solely the effects of the war in China. Nor were they the only commercial effects in the U. S. To...
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