CRISES AND NERVES

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 23, 24 March 1939, Page 2

CRISES AND NERVES

HOW GERMANS SURVIVED

Inquiries in Berlin have shown that there has been a sharp rise in the quantity of nerve preparations and sleep-inducing drugs sold in Germany, states the Berlin correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph," London.

It is clear that this fact, which, I understand, has also been observed in other countries, is directly traceable to the constant nervous strain imposed by the political events of recent months.

One chemist told me that the rise in sales of these preparations had been phenomenal.

"I should not like to say that there has been much change of recent months," he said, "but there has undoubtedly been a far higher consumption of this kind of drug during the last two years than in 1934 or 1935. In 1933 sales also went up."

In reply to an inquiry at the offices of the German Dye Trust, which controls a well-known German firm of drug manufacturers, I was told: "There has been an increased consumption of all kinds of medicines during the last few years. I should not like to say that the rise in nerve tonics was exceptional."

From statistics prepared by the Czechoslovak tobacco monopoly, which were recently published in Germany, it is clear that the consumption of tobacco and cigarettes is strongly influenced by the political situation.

The quantity of cigarettes and tobacco smoked in Czechoslovakia during the crisis period in September shows an enormous increase on the consumption of normal months.