13 Replies to “Honey, I Finished The Internet”

  1. Don’t know if I’d call these “wildly dangerous” remedies. Generally things that worked got passed on.
    2. Cocaine is a very effective nasal decongestant. It suffers from the same side effects as the current non-Rx nasal decongestants of rapid development of tolerance and rebound congestion. One non-Rx decongestant that I have to show the empty tube to people so they believe me is L-methamphetamine which was available OTC in an inhaler until a few years ago. Worked quite well.
    3. The puffball treatment for epistaxis is interesting. What I suspect is that the interior of the puffball likely swells when it is wet by blood and it puts pressure on the nasal bleeder and stops the bleed — same as the “nasal tampons” we currently use for epistaxis. Of course, cocaine solution in the nose will work faster.
    6. Cocaine lozenges probably worked very well for sore throats. Back then cocaine was the only available local anesthetic.
    8. The thornapple cigarettes contain atropine and scopolamine and both have anticholinergic properties. This is the same as using an Atrovent inhaler for asthma. The chloroform is something I’m going to have to research to see if it causes direct relaxation of bronchial smooth muscle.
    17. The cannabinoid acne treatment shows promise as acne is equally an inflammatory condition as well as infection with propionobacterium acneum. What I recommend as a first treatment now is large doses of fish oil which work surprisingly well in many cases. Topical cannabinoids should have significant anti-inflammatory effects and something else to research.
    I collect ancient medical books and often get good ideas from them as people though differently back then and used what they had available. Locally, groundhog fat seems to be viewed as good for all sorts of skin conditions.

  2. Loki, that was a very interesting comment.
    When I was a kid on the farm here in Saskatchewan, there was a product sold in town called “Alpin Kritter (sp)” that was used to cure pretty much everything. You could rub it on any affected area and drink it if you needed a little lift. Not sure if you added a mixer.
    Horse liniment was also a great cure-all and had a nice smell.

  5. Ken, your comment reminded me about all of the veterinary products that are used by my farmer/rancher patients who figure they should try treating themselves first. I went to a few veterinary supply stores to look at what was available and found some real bargains on what, if sold for human use, would be quite expensive drugs. It still gets me very riled up that I can’t prescribe Ivermectin to people without filling out multiple forms from the HPB whereas one can just walk into a veterinary supply store and buy the “large dog” dose for a human with no prescription needed.
    I’ve lost track of how many times I hear my farmer patients say ” worked fine for the horse/cow and I figured I should give it a try before wasting your time.”

  6. A liniment which we had a the farm when I was a kid had the slogan “good for man or beast” on the label.
    The kerosene and sugar cough medicine (7) was quite effective for people of all ages, and I can remember using it from time to time. It also relieved sore throats.
    Blue ointment (15) was readily available in pharmacies until at least well into the 1950s.

  8. I never had any of these .
    I would like to see a scientific study that actually shows how these …taken appropriately …vs inapropriatly …vs ….not at all has what effect be it positive neutral or negative on the human body !! Ie causing cancer , or shortening life span or ,weakening the immune system !!

  9. Ingesting tapeworms as a tactic to lose weight was actually advertised back in pre WWII days. I used to show my students the ad! It’s illegal now but apparently practiced in Mexico.

  10. “If the previous method failed to work, a “spray of a four-percent solution of cocaine” or direct application of a cotton ball soaked in an even stronger solution in the nostril was recommended for “immediate relief.”
    Ahhhhhhh. So that’s how they justify the dope sites! It’s medicine,covered under our “free” health system! I’ve extended my prayers to San Andreas(sp?) to include BC.

  11. As a farm kid I remember fellas having a sideline business of sawing the horns off of heifers.
    In the case of a “heifer that wouldn’t stop bleeding” the search was on for the big white puff balls to put on to stop the bleeding.
    I’m not surprised that turpentine was such an active ingredient in many “cures”…’til the day he died my father used turpentine on any kind of cut to disenfect it…no way in hell could you convince him not to.
    Loki…you are making me laugh… enough ivermectin gets splashed on me that I never have to worry about river blindness 🙂

  12. A nurse acquaintance of mine worked in a nursing home many years ago and the state inspector was always amazed that her patients had very few bedsores.
    Her secret was Bag Balm, a salve for cow udder’s.

  13. The Glengarian, now you’ve made it necessary for me to find out what pro-coagulant exists within puffballs. The type of bleeding you’d get from a sawn off horn is a nightmare to deal with and, what doctors would do would be to use either gelfoam or bone wax. I suspect the puffball is probably the poor mans equivalent of gelfoam. Alternatively, one can use crazy glue on a piece of cardboard and pressure.
    Sometimes the means of stopping bleeding are rather non-obvious and I remember calling up the ENT on call late one night during my training telling him I couldn’t stop a patients nosebleed. His only question was “what’s the guys blood pressure”. It was in the 200 systolic range and his response was to give 10 mg of morphine iv and then hung up. Surprisingly, the morphine did stop the bleeding likely by dropping the bp and lessening the pressure on the forming clot.

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