QUAINT REMEDIES AND IDEAS

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIV, Issue XX, 19 May 1900, Page 941

QUAINT REMEDIES AND IDEAS

At the last meeting of th** New York llistoiical Society, Dr. Sydney 11. Carney, Jun.. read a paper on “ I he New York Medical Profession in 1800.” The better to put his hearers into tin* proper mental attitude- for what he had to say to them. Dr. Ci rney reminded them that al tin* lime ot which he was speaking 1 peach, plum, and pear trees nourished in Madison Square, a..d Babylonian maples and [sycamore trees waved their branches, as they had don** for generations, in City Hall Park. There has been some speculation among th** curious as to tin- prevalence of gripts at bedtime among New Yorkers of a hundred years ago. The remedy lor this complaint prescribed by the physicians was nutmeg and brandy ami the yolk of an egg. to be taken before going to bed. For apoplexy, salt and cold water were to he used, whereupon the patient was “immediately to come to himself.” A toothache remedy etlicarious always with one exception in tin* practice of on** physician, was to erush a ladybug betwen th** thumb and fore finger and then to rub th** finger on the gum and tooth. Freshly crushed bugs were recommended. For t Inbite of a mad dog th** prescription was an ounce of the jawbone of the dog. some colt’s tongue, and a scrup'e of verdigris, that taken from th*- cop pers of George I. and Georg** 11. being preferred, of which compound a tea spoonful a day was to be taken. If that failed to cur**, iso grains of verdigris and half an ounce of calomel were to be given in our dos** bv a physician in person. If this stiil failed, lour grains of pure opium were given to tin* patient. This last was a secret remedy so successful that early in tin- century tin* State Legislature boiighl th** secret for l* 100. Tadpoles figured in tin- regimen of that day to such an extent that it is said tin* people of Vermont, in a sen son of scarcity, -dmost fattened on them. And one of New York's fam oils physicians spent a part of his time in tin* studs’ of tin* alimentarv qualities of these fid-bits.