Yep! As usual Jim T. is right on the money!
In 1946, I suffered a fractured skull. The wound was deep enough that
there was concern that my brain would be exposed to bacteria (but I was
young enough that the skull was still growing so the brain was not
permanently exposed). I was one of the first civilians in my area to
receive treatment with a new antibiotic that had theretofore been
reserved for treating injured soldiers. What was that miracle drug?
Penicillin! In those days they had little idea of correct dosage, using
the the rule of thumb that you should take as much as you could provided
it didn't kill you. I received mega dosages by injection every 6 hours
for 8 days. Doctors nowadays surmise that its effects on me are not as
great as expected perhaps due to some early adaptation my body made to
the drug.
In those days, some childhood diseases caused the public health
department (at the county level IIRC) to quarantine the household. That
meant that none could enter or leave unless they could prove they had
survived the particular disease causing quarantine. I recall that
measles and mumps didn't warrant quarantine, but scarlet fever,
rheumatic fever and polio did. I had most of the childhood disease
except mumps and polio. I remember my large family fearing being
quarantined when I had scarlet fever. There would have been 5 teenagers
in the house then. Can you even imagine what that would have been like.
I think my mother might have borrowed the claw hammer (to get this on
topic) if the county health department had nailed up the placard.
Bob Hutchins
Temple, TX, USA
On 2/23/2011 2:31 PM, James Thompson wrote:
> > Modern medicines have transformed the world. In my lifetime I have seen vacc
ines, antibiotics, and anesthetics, among other things, invented or discovered.
When I was a child, ether was the anesthetic available, and penicillin the only
antibiotic. So patent medicines were pretty much your only choices. If you got b
etter, then the medicine must have worked. If you didn't get better, you must ha
ve taken the wrong medicine.
>
> > Coal oil (kerosene) was a very popular remedy for a lot of ailments, both in
ternal and external.
>
> > Since vaccines were unheard of except for smallpox, children under 6 were ta
ken to visit with other children who had contagious diseases so they could catch
the disease and develop immunity to those diseases, mumps, measles, etc. If you
got all the childhood diseases before you started school, then you wouldn't hav
e to miss school because of these diseases. It made perfect sense back then. I h
ad them all. I don't recall anybody dying of the childhood diseases, but now eve
ryone is convinced that these are deadly. Maybe they are.
>
>
> On Feb 23, 2011, at 12:12 PM, Mike Siemsen wrote:
>
>> >> Sleep is a potent healer. The drugs killed the pain or coughing or whateve
r so you could get a decent nights sleep. It wasn't that long ago that codeine w
as in over the counter cough medicine. Many of them contain alcohol. My old man
gave us blackberry brandy for it's curative powers, and he could have some too!
>> Mike
>>
>> On 02/23/2011 12:11 PM, scott grandstaff wrote:
>>> OK, old patent medicines,... just get me started !!!!
>>>
>>> The three most popular ingredients in nearly all of them, including
>>> The Great - Dr Kilmers - Kidney Liver and Bladder Cure - Specific!!
>>>
>>> >>> (one dollar a bottle, folks, just one dollar for the perfect preparation
of secretly guarded ingredients guaranteed to cure ......)
>>>
>>> Were alcohol, opium and laxative.
>>> Notably senna or calomel.
>>> About 4 hours in the outhouse worth.
>>>
>>>
>>> Mrs Winslows Soothing Syrup for Teething Infants.......
>>> was loaded with alcohol and opium (also known as laudanum)
>>>
>>> >>> The thing was, people didn't really have all that much that actually wor
ked to a strong effect.
>>> Aspirin and quinine didn't come along until the 1880's.
>>> >>> So old time herbs and spices, not very effective but old time trusted,
and the big three, made up almost all of them.
>>>
>>> >>> They wouldn't really cure you of anything, but they seldom killed you ei
ther, and when you drank them?
>>> something definitely did happen.
>>>
>>> Happy tonight, busy tomorrow
>>>
>>> yours Scott
>>>
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