A Chill Ranking of Some of the Weirdest Victorian Medicines
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- Опубликовано: 22 мар 2023
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Poisons! Poisons! We love poisons in today's ranking of some scary nasty stuff the Victorians tried to pass off as medicines, some of which are still being sold today. Come learn with me about why you should NOT trust cure-alls.
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Sources
The Influence of Victorian ‘Patent Medicines’ on the Development of Early 20th Century Medical Practice by F. Charles Tring
The Patent Medicines Industry in Georgian England: Constructing the Market by the Potency of Print by Alan Mackintosh
The Pharmacology of Nineteenth-Century Patent Medicines by J. Worth Estes
Nervous Women and Noble Savages: The Romanticized “Other” in Nineteenth-Century US Patent Medicine Advertising by JANE MARCELLUS
The Commodity Culture of Victorian England: Advertising and Spectacle, 1851-1914 by Thomas Richards
The Mighty Healer: Thomas Holloway's Victorian Patent Medicine Empire by Verity Holloway
British Patent Medicines: “Injurious Rubbish”? By Lori Loeb
From Cure-alls to Calcium Tablets: A Comparative Semiotic Analysis of Advertisements for 19th and 20th Century Patent Medicines and Contemporary Dietary Supplements by Karin A. Albrecht
National Museum of American History- Balm of America: Patent Medicine Collection americanhistory.si.edu/collec...
Digital Public Library of America- Quack Cures and Self-Remedies: Patent Medicine dp.la/exhibitions/patent-medi...
Patent medicines and the public's health. By J Parascandola
Snake Oil Salesmen Were on to Something by Cynthia Graber for Scientific American www.scientificamerican.com/ar...
Bitter medicine: gout and the birth of the cocktail by Richard Barnett for The Lancet www.thelancet.com/journals/la...
Secret remedies : what they cost and what they contain by British Medical Association
Annals Of Weight-Loss Gimmicks: From Bile Beans To Obesity Soap by Scott Hensley for NPR www.npr.org/sections/health-s...
Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones: The American Medicine Show By Ann Anderson
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Kaz please take gentle care of yourself. You are worthy of that and so much more. 🤍🕊️
Have you ever been to the Waco Dr. Pepper museum? It's a staple field trip for local schools. It's like the one positive Waco historical site. You'd probably love it.
7:30 what is laculose?
Curing a morphine addiction by replacing it with a cocaine addiction is certainly a move. A lateral move, but a move nonetheless.
Mr Cola and his son ended up addicted to both.
Heroin was first marketed as a "non-addictive" replacement for opiates. 🙄😲😬
I would say cocaine is slightly better than morphine. Not by a lot, but like maybe a smidge.
@@euansmith3699 oxycontins manufacturer patented an opioid substitute in 2018. They weren’t nearly as bold in the 19th century😬🫤
@@shivanibatra7659 The Sackler's have got so much to answer for.
"Struggling with alcoholism? Try cocaine!" is one hell of a marketing strategy
Its like now. Struggling with addiction or depression try psychedelics! Lol
Expecially with the explosive potential, both have together.
Super fucking effective; I've heard plenty of coke addicts say they developed an addiction on alcohol during it because of how the drug effects complement. I have to think it can work fine for some the other way around.
@@manicpepsicola3431 I hate to be the "well actually" guy but phycadellics have evidence of being useful in the field.
Im for it. Alcoholics are dangerous
Hydrophobia is actually the historical name for rabies, so the wizard oil was *definitely* promising to cure rabies.
At least it might put you out of your misery in that case
I always was told that you use 7up or sprite or even ginger ale when your kid has the stomach flu because 1. it tastes good so kids are likely to drink it and stay hydrated even though they don't feel well and 2. the sugar means their body is getting Some energy and liquids are easier on the stomach than solids.
A lot of folk-medicinal stuff has ginger in it, like a nonalcoholic hot toddy often contains lemon juice, ginger, and honey. (The alcoholic version adds whiskey.)
To add, it's also the carbonation (and u were right) the sugar. Both along with ginger and lemon are all things used and proven to help with stomach aches (not a placebo like kaz said). Of course it won't be as good as something like emetrol but better than nothing
In my country we mostly give hot tea, camomile... or coca cola. Cuz it makes sense, I guess lol
Ginger can help settle one's stomach as well (trial and error on how much, certainly wouldn't eat a ton of it)
We were raised on Ginger Beer/Ale for stomach aches and car sickness and Lucozade to help with colds still no idea if they do more than a placebo but they're a tradition at this point.
My great-grandma Verna drank Dr Pepper daily for decades and she died at age 105, so don't worry my family says it's good for you lol
My great-great grandma drank Coke daily too and made it to 104 lol
Yo my grandpa did the exact same. Didn’t live as long but for being an avid Dr. Pepper drinker, he sure did live a longer than most.
My grandma drank 7up daily and she was perfectly fine! Except for the diabetes and obesity that took her from us at age 61.
Long Covid has certainly put me in a state of thinking I'm a Victorian lady wasting away from some mystery ailment.
Amen to that, sister! I dread the day when I’ll see a Long Covid “cure-all” designed to prey upon our situation.
I wish you better health. Long Covid is all too real.
Have you tried cocaine and opium? Nothing like cocaine and opium to cure *checks list*… everything
Hope you’re doing well!
@@GoblinoAlaMode I would agree with that. Just dose safely and conscientiously...
I too feel the need to faint onto luxurious sofas and relay my last dying wish to my significant other.
me, chugging the original coca-cola formula during this adderall shortage: "surely this will cure me!"
I mean, cocaine could probably help with ADHD. It's got a similar mechanism of affecting the brain to most ADHD meds, including adderall.
Heh ... I've read a lot of personal accounts from coke and meth addicts who figured out what their problem was and could finally recover when they were diagnosed with ADHD. You are bang on the money.
I feel your pain! It’s not the same as adderall but L-theanine and caffeine have a synergistic effect when taken together and take the edge off ADHD symptoms. I relied on it when I was in between doctors. I forget the dose but I bet a google search would tell you.
I drink True North as a supplement to my concentration meds. All the vitamins and such, no artificial sweeteners
Now that Vyvanse is off patent and it’s expensive af, I’m down to try it lmao.
Trying to survive the most intense part of my degree and the med costs. Thoughts and prayers please. 😂
"You can't take dr. pepper out from Taxis lesbian" killed me
ONG, I'm a Texas lesbian.....who knew! I love Dr. Pepper! I thought I was merely a wandering bisexual.
@@valkyrie1066if I like Pepsi and Dr Pepper does that explain my bisexuality? 😂😂
I actually really like that Kaz didn't only showcased Victorian medicine, but also stuff from much later as well. It really shows that it wasn't like "oh people back then were stupid, they used dangerous chemicals that could and did kill them, thankfully, we are smart nowadays and don't do that..." oh wait, we still do.
Covid definitely helped give these quacks a voice 😄
I honestly wish the crazy cure alls of today were simply limited to people claiming a vitamin regimen cures my rare disease or something. At least you’ll just pee out that much vitamin c 😂.
Yeah it reminds me of all those “cleanse” medications, BS weight loss cures, teas, and homeopathy. People are still fooled. The only difference is we have some OK government regulations
Yes I often say how similar things are now to the Victorian age. Advancements as well as really dumb errors as to what is good/safe medically etc. Kinda fascinating.
@@thelestrangelair That's a very interesting observation. It seems very true
In the UK a drink called Lucosade is commonly given if you're feeling sick with cold/flu or a hangover. It's just a glucose energy drink with a bit of caffeine. It used to be marketed as a medicine in pharmacists but now it is sold as an energy/sports drink. The whole history of soda origins in medicine is fascinating !
Honestly it's such a treat having lucosade as a treat when you're sick as a kid 😂
@@CatsForTheCatGodes! I thought this was a personal experience but im glad im not alone, not only did you get a day off school and some time to relax, but you got a lucosade to get your energy back
Lucosade is horrible tasting. My baby brother loved it, but to me it is vile. Although, I do like the original 7-Up made with real sugar from Mexico.
us notherners have Vimto too
Lucozade Orange gang where we at
Honestly, a lot of those things listed for the pink pills like fatigue and such can be related to anemia, so I'd put it at the top since it'd absolutely do some of what it claimed. I had pretty severe anemia from my ulcerative colitis and besides fatigue it also caused hair loss and tinnitus! Had to be on prescription iron supplements for months.
I was homeless due to covid for nine months. When I finally found a place to stay and eat regularly, I had severe anemia. I felt terrible all over. An iron supplement, which at first made me nauseous and crampy, started pulling everything together. In a few months, I was feeling human again. Maybe the pink pills weren't a total loss. I had arrhythmia as well, which disappeared as my iron leveled out. It didn't help that I couldn't get my insulin or heart meds filled, but I had no idea how SEVERE the incapacity could be just from an iron shortage.
It just addresses the symptom (of tired) instead of the underlying health issue (of anemia). Like how some drugs advertise “weight loss” when they are actually an appetite suppressant or laxative. We need to have more clarity about what a drug actually does rather than the symptom it is most profitable to “treat”
@@k80_ I think immediately of Nyquil- while I'd say the medicine is marketed correctly for the symptoms it targets, it's still commonly believed that it directly helps ones' immune system/"fights the cold".
It's a low dose of DXM, which is a suppressant. Essentially, it only blocks the part of your brain that tells you to cough... So you think the cold is gone, hahaha.
Indirectly, it technically helps your immune system, by allowing the user to have restful sleep that isn't interrupted by symptoms (And, yknow, the drowsiness helps).
It's a fair shortcut-assumption that people make, about what the medicine does... But I feel that the clarification of what specific chemical interaction is occurring, is majorly helpful.
Hell- it's fair to assume that, many years in the future, DXM for a head cold will be exactly like "cocaine for a headache", given the drug's capabilities!
Imagine an alternate universe where instead of trying to quit morphine, he decided to double down and market it: _Mora-Morpha_
I thought The „mum loves me now“ article to promote a laxative was wild, but then we come to opium child medecine 😅
I'm pretty sure that we still give children morphine.
My mom told me once that root beer tasted like the cough syrup that they had in Belarus where she's from. She won't touch root beer because of it.
Was she referring to American root beer?
@@anastasiathehiphopfairy yes. She doesn’t remember which brand and she only tried it once in the US.
My mom feels the same way about root beer, she’s from Mexico. But hey, that’s how I feel about any artificial cherry or grape flavor.
I feel that way about Dr Pepper and all artificial cherry flavorings 😂 real cherries might be my favorite fruit, but cherry is definitely my most despised flavor.
It seems that a lot of non-Americans think Root Beer tastes like cough syrup/medicinal. I guess that is because it was originally created as medicine.
I have an ancestor who had his own patent medicine - Dr. D. Hanson's GOLDEN OINTMENT. The ad copy I've found is hilarious because it's like "We don't claim it to be a cure-all", but also claimed it could cure quite a lot. I have no idea what was in it or if it did more harm than good.
yo we have the same last name
@@samuel-fg6wh My last name is different, but if your family were Quakers in New England, there's a good chance we're related.
As far as names go, “Dr. Batty’s Asthma Cigarettes” is a longtime favorite of mine. But as an asthmatic who smoked when they were younger, the idea of these having been touted as a cure for anything horrifies me (although in fairness, the ad I’m looking at states that they weren’t recommended for children under 6).
Oh geez as a fellow asthmatic I feel the horror too
>"in fairness, the ad I'm looking at states that they weren't recommended for children under 6"
The bar isn't just in Hell, its in the 8th layer of Hell
Wanna know what’s worse? They WORKED. They had some herb in them that would effect your lungs like a Primatine inhaler. (Aka, it made your lungs burn like the surface of the sun, but did open your airways). My granddad was put on them as a child and told me all about them.
i love how this is a chill ranking
Same! I also love how there’s a bunch of weird Victorian medicines
@@jacklandismusic fr
Fun fact: Blossom Dearie (the singing voice for the 60s Hire's Root Beer commercial) was also known for her singing in Schoolhouse Rock! Her voice is so lovely :)
Omg you just answered a question I’ve been wondering for years about who the lady singing on school house rock was I loved listening to her growing up
I have Inter-planet Janet stuck in my head now. ^_^;
"These days you don't really see medicines advertised in magician form" 😂
Ooh, just wait till you get a load of video of the keynote address at the Sacklers' opioid sales convention! No stripey pants, but lots of high production value stagecraft surrounding the sales manager chanting "Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell!" over a karaoke track. You will definitely need a cure for tummy hurts disease and cranial neuralgia after that one.
You put your finger on a big point. Of course a society that drugs infants will have adults with substance abuse issues. Really makes you think about the alcohol that followed the period that even led to prohibition in the US. And it's not like those social substance abuse issues don't persist in some form to this day.
"the alcohol that followed the period that even led to prohibition"..... dude, what are you even trying to say?
@Sleve-McDichael I'm saying the kids that were raised that way became alcoholics of the worst kind. Prohibition was stupid, but it was a reaction to the bar and drinking culture that was completely off the rails. The video makes that point, and the hundred likes show others understood what you did not. Also, English is not my first language, how many languages do you speak?
Regarding radium... it was a bit shocking how casually its use (as decoration, furnishing and architectural) was in a fictional society in Baum's The Patchwork Girl of Oz. I suppose written at a time when radioactivity was poorly understood.
If you're not already familiar, look up "radium girls." They worked in a factory painting radioactive dials on clocks. They were taught to use their lips to bring their brushes to a point. You can imagine what happened to them. People did NOT understand radium's harm for a while.
While it had been known about for roughy a decade already, radium was first isolated in 1910 and Patchwork Girl of Oz was published in 1913. Using radium in all kinds of nonsense products was already in full swing by then.
@@New_Wave_Nancy It's awful that the people in charge absolutely knew the danger, but allowed those women to poison themselves.
@@Helvetica_Scenariothey really didn't fully understand what they were dealing with. Even the Curies walked around with radium in their pockets.
@@pscar1 By the time this happened, they knew. The folks that handled this stuff wore lead aprons, yet these women were allowed to put the paint brushes in their mouths.
I remember reading about how one of the people in charge who didn't normally interact with the women absentmindedly looked at one of them and let slip something along the lines of, "Don't do that, you'll get sick", as she put the brush in her mouth.
The yellow Bile Beans sign painted on the side of a building is right near my university!! I'd always vaguely wondered what bile beans were meant to be but had never gotten around to actually looking them up
[/j] Prohibitionist were like:
“Alcohol? Heavens forbid! Hard drugs are a much better alternative!”
I remember reading in a book on the history of soda and soda shops mentioned that the proliferation of "medical sodas" was that pharmacies would mix alcohol based medicines with sugar and soda water to hide their bitter taste. And the knowledge at some point a kid was sick and their pharmacist was like "sip some of this lean for your tooth ache" was a real event is hilarious to me.
I have three of the Eclectric trade cards in my collection including the first one you shared and all three have cats. Trade cards were very collectible back then for use in scrapbooks and images of babies, kids, cats and dogs are appealing and as you showed whimsical.
Trade cards walked so the kpop collectible cards could run
@@sluggmom ............i feel like literally every kind of trading card that came before that (baseball cards, pokemon cards, etc.) walked first lol
@@carythacker8049 I think slugmom mentioned kpop because of how among things that have done collector cards to death, kpop is way up there.
@Cary Thacker so I should list every kind of collectible card that came before kpop card for historical accuracy? That would have made the joke better, thanks for your input
I mean, fair play. If you want your brand’s social post/ad to go viral one standard trick is still to put a dog or cat on it!
One of my favourite things I’ve ever seen in a museum of medicine was snail water. Specifically an advertisement that claimed their particular brand was “as good a snail water as can be made.”
As someone with much loved pet snails, I do not want to know HOW the best snail water is made
Just thinking of Victorian medicines conjures words like sebum and ichor in my head. Makes me wonder what went into the average Victorian hard candy.
Probably brimstone and licorice, maybe some opium or cocaine if you were lucky 💀
Arsenic, if you were unlucky. It was a common practice during the Victorian era to add adulterants like plaster to candy, and one time in 1858 a candy maker accidentally used arsenic trioxide instead of plaster. 21 people died.
Maybe that’s why grandmas always keep mystery hard candies in their purse 😂they inherited them, lord knows they are tough enough.
@@wanderingspark Yes! The Bradford Sweets poisonings. A fascinating case that makes me even more grateful for the advent of health codes.
One allegation that ended up on a British documentary series was mercury.
You don't wanna know what was in the tea.
I used to dig antique bottles and it was amazing the amount of patent med bottles we would find in old privies and dumps. Jamaica Ginger, Cer Cantharid, Glyco Heroin. Many others.
My parents live on a hill in west Virginia that used to be part of a logging mountain. The bottles we dig up!
I would love to see your take on the Sutherland sisters (and possibly other famous 'sister acts' of the Victorian/Edwardian era)
As always, a treat to watch. Happy housewarming to you!
The original Kardashians.
Dying to hear more about the sisters!
Yeah it would be great to see Kaz do a video on them!
That HAIR
So sorry to hear about your unwell health lately, friend. I completely relate, and I too felt like a sad victorian child whilst laying in bed, moaning and crying. My room mates described it as the house being haunted by a victorian boy ghost, especially when I was in the bathroom with my voice echoing through the vents lmao. I have Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome, so that's essentially my biggest fear. I just uncontrollably vomit during episodes.
Bruh thats how I'm feeling right now, this internet stranger sees you and I hope you are feeling as well as possible today. I definitely relate to feeling like a frail consumptive Victorian in regards to the horror of multi day vomit extravaganzas considering my current gastroparesis flare up and folate deficiency anemia torture combo. BTW my go to quick fix for lingering nausea is sniffing a little isopropyl alcohol. Figured I'd pass along that little trick in case you're interested, I learned it from a nurse back when I was stuck in the med surg ward for a few weeks.
Omg I have cvs too !! It’s a horrible disease, stay strong!
Yayyyyy!!! When the world needed them the most, Kaz returned to give us the historical content we crave 😀😀😀😀
🙌🙌🙌
Yes! I've felt very burnt out this week and this is really helpful😊
@@copperfloyd9281 I like your name
I swear something, maybe solar flares, has been interfering with my neurology lately. Love n support to see you through your current struggles fam.
Fun story about 7Up! My dad would tell me to try it in milk because his mom would give it to him and his siblings. It’s not bad, but I always thought it was weird and random. Then I came across a similar ad online on tumblr or something and it all made sense! 😂
7up and milk is often drunk in places like Pakistan and India. Usually during Ramadan!
I saw an add from the 50s (I think) claiming 7up and Milk was a healthy drink. So I had to try some. I can almost never get anyone to believe that it’s fine.
@@sketchingbird8772 This was probably the same ad I saw! None of my friends ever wanted to try it either! It really isn’t bad, just… interesting.
@@musiccubed2650 That’s really interesting! My dad is Slovak so I assumed for many years it was some ~weird Slovak thing~ lol!
This sounds awful but I suddenly really want to try it.
That original Victorian medicine video is what first got me interested in your videos. Stoked to see the next few vids Kaz!
Oh wow it's Patrick Kelly! My other favorite commentator of medical history
@@theturkeychild thanks for the kind words. Big fan of Kaz’s work!
Same! Now I'm obsessed
16:27 As a Texan, I was told to lower my sugar intake, and I just got smaller DrP cans. I refused to stop or to drink diet DP
😆 Dr pepper zero is good! (& coke zero) whatever chemicals they put in it work
Hamlin's Wizard Oil... for all your old rusty wizards...
Born and raised in Georgia. I grew up on both Coke and Dr. Pepper/Mr. Pibb. The former was actually given to me when I felt nauseous as a kid (my mom claimed that sipping it would calm my stomach). I'll give up alot of things, but soda and caffeine is not among them, lol.
Born and raised in Germany and was also given Coca Cola (plus pretzel sticks/saltsticks) when I was nauseous or had gastric flu.
@@AgentSteffi in Sweden too! I have very vivid memories of my mom stirring a glass of coca cola to remove the carbonation for me when I was sick as a child :’)
About the Sutherland Sisters, there are a few people on TikTok and YT, who claim that we don't have such long and full hair, like in the Victorian Era and before, anymore because of a few things. And they nearly always use a picture from the Sutherland Sisters to proof that claim. Like no, your hair length is determined by your genetics. Yes, you need to take good care of your hair because breakage is a thing. But there is a point were most of your hair won't grow any longer.
I've never heard about 7-up for an upset stomach, but I was given either sprite or gingerale while growing up.
The gingerale absolutely works, because of the ginger.
Still always have a bottle, in the pantry, just in case!
Most commercial ginger ale no longer has enough ginger to do much. Glad it worked for you!
I really do enjoy ginger ale for digestion problems. I also really enjoy root beer though it no longer has sassafras (because of the carcinogen/MDMA ingredient the roots have without special processing) so it’s not going to relieve fevers now. Birch beer is the best though. I don’t know what it was ever used for medicinally, it’s just weirdly delicious.
i always drink the Q cocktail mix gingerale (the hibiscus one). theyre really nice and have a tinge of spiciness.
Birch contains salicylic acid. Aspirin, ultimately
Edit spelling... Auto did me dirty there 😂
Mdma? Like the drug?
I've seen cola syrup in drug stores in the antacid area. I think it was marketed by Coca-Cola, but was in small print at the bottom of the label. I've also seen turpentine in small bottles, sold for muscle aches.
My mom used to give me that for stomach aches.
Dr Pepper (any flavor) + Dr McGillicuddy's (any flavor) = Doctor Who cocktail (every regeneration is a little different)
Moving across the country is incredibly hard. be kind to yourself! glad to see you back
In my country " moving across the country " means driving half an hour down the road.
Okay I know this isn't from the victorian era but I feel like you would do such a good job discussing the Dionne Quintuplets
Ooh yes!
"Would you be willing to trade sickness for debilitating addiction? "
This was such a fun video and and I can't wait for part two! The Radithor story was chilling. I grew up in a town that had high levels of radium in the drinking water (they eventually were forced to change the water source when I was in my late teens), so I guess I should start saving for that lead-lined coffin, they sound expensive.
You mentioned something about the topical meds being not so bad, but some of them had organic solvents (turpentine, I'm looking at you) so they could still make you ill, even if you never ingested them.
Oh no, I feel that I know where you grew up (since I lived there from 1999-2004)
If I am correct, I am so sorry. 😞
@@VinceWhitacre I didn’t realize this until I looked it up, but I guess having radium in the drinking water was a fairly common problem in towns all over the Midwest, but the amounts were minuscule compared to what was in Radithor and that guy took a lot of Radithor, so I don’t think I’ll truly need a lead-lined coffin. Especially since I never set off the Geiger counters when I was working in labs. 😁But there’s apparently an increased risk of having leukemia (which I didn’t realize until I looked it up today). So that sucks. And yet growing up it was never treated as anything more than a quirky fact about our town and something that was kind of a pain to fix.
Fun fact (for very awful values of fun), some organic solvents can cross into your cells directly, without being ingested. Also, most organic solvents are volatile enough that you will end up inhaling the vapors if they are on your skin. Don't mess about with solvents kids!
@@lizellis2661Well sure but in this case it's just turpentine... like... the stuff that you use to clean paint from your hands.
Welcome back, Kaz! I sure have missed you and your content, was so delighted when you announced this one on your IG, can’t wait for the second part! 🥰 have a good time settling in and take care 😊
You should do one about victorian medicines/treatments actually worked and are still used today to an extent. The comparison would be fun!
Alot of them mentioned here. I'd dare say nigh all. In some format or another, we just have much better understanding of the compounds and route of administration.
Sometimes when i have headaches due to low blood sugar, drinking coke really helps because of the absurd amounts of sugar, but it can make it worse because of the absurd amounts of caffeine
So it’s like a terrible horrible coin toss? Ouch. Hopefully the times it helps outnumber the times it makes it worse
The wall looks great! Things are settling in well for a new place congrats. I feel you on the bedridden thing, I just got surgery as well and I'm in bed for about 2 weeks. I hope you're feeling better and better everyday! Videos like this are kind of my life blood when I'm in bed.
i hope yr surgery went well n u recover quickly :D
thank you for being explicit in your courage to fight off an illness. I can see that I am not alone. I look to your vids for hope because you are a role model that professes optimism and motivation. Your honest disclosure of your own challenges grounded me. Your determination really helps me fight my own problems. thank you for being here for me and everyone else that seeks a way to solve our own challenges.
Glad to see you back Kaz, but take care of yourself and don't push yourself too hard. Health comes first!
ABC sounds interesting. Aconitum was used as a painkiller since ancient times, even if it had some serious side effects (both acanitum and belladona are still used in medicine in small doses). Chloroform (alongside diethyl ether) was one of the first (relatively) safe anesthetics.
First thing I thought of when I saw the title was Carter's Little Liver Pills, bit of a cure all from the late 1860s that lasted almost a century I think. I'm familiar with it from the old saying "they've got more ______ than Carter's got little liver pills".
I think my favorite from this list is the Pink Pills for Pale People, being a Perpetually Pale Person Personally.
Appreciate you encouraging people not to trust all info that crops up on social media, I too have been discouraged by traditional care more than once but I trust in science.
I don't know how I escaped living in Texas for 3 years without developing an addiction to Dr.Pepper but here I am 😃
I remember going to the local Coke bottling factory as a field trip when I was 11 or 12 and the tour guide gleefully told us about the original ingredients and the whole class was mildly scandalised but also we formed a conspiracy theory that there *must* still be cocaine in there 😂
Oh, this reminds of the time my grandpa accidentally painted his house in military-surplus radium paint.
I've never heard of 7-Up as a medicine for an upset stomach. We always used (and still use, because it absolutely works) is Vernors ginger ale.
As a Michigander, I grew up on Vernors and Faygo. Years later, I'm in a hospital after gall bladder surgery and the Dr recommends gingerale, "but NOT Vernors" what??? Turns out there's no ginger in Vernors. It's all artificial flavoring and the sugar and sodium would have the opposite effect.
Canada Dry, Seagrams and even most store brands have ginger and actually do help alleviate stomach pain.
But Kaz, there is this one weird trick (denied me by those “medical professionals”) that will cure all my ills without exercise, diet, or ever having to see a doctor again! Are you implying this might be a bunch of hooey? 🤪 P.S. …congrats on the move.
full honesty you could record your videos through a payphone and i would still watch and enjoy them. always so happy to see you upload!!
Fun fact: coca cola still legally imports coca leaves. They don't use the cocaine but I believe they extract flavor from it.
Could you do another ranking based on what the medicines would to do Gwyneth Paltrow?
this is so fun! I’ve got a sears catalogue from 1897 and my favorite part to look at is the medicine section because all of the descriptions are so long and funny lmao
this was such a fun change, i love the effort for your essays but sometimes a chill video is nice too :))
23:10 i’m currently reading the radium girls which is about the women employed by various radium companies that used radium paint to make glowing watches. they would put the paintbrushes with the radium on it in their mouths to get a more precise point. obviously, they all got incredibly sick. the book chronicles their time before, during, and after working for the radium companies, their fight for recognition of radium poisoning as a disease, and their battles for compensation and punishment for the companies. because the companies knew. they knew the whole time. it’s a very upsetting book, but fascination and important in history, as it’s about workers coming together and fighting for their rights.
Honestly, I'm just glad to see a video and know you're okay! Ain't gonna lie though, I was absolutely tickled to come home from getting my grocery pick-up and see a Kaz Rowe video had been recently uploaded! Hope you get some rest and feel better soon!
A local pharmacy chain where I live in Panama sells "aceite eléctrico" which I had been wondering what's the deal with that, but now I wonder if it's not a knock off of that old eclectric oil. It is for external use only, but it does have a turpentine-like odor and burn along with some other herbal ingredients.
I love how much research you always put in! And that you credit and share your sources! It’s refreshing and awesome for my curious mind to do some further digging!!
Welcome back! I hope you're feeling better now.
Also, wow, those old Dr. Pepper ads had some spectacular art, especially 17:25.
Some chronic illness patients actually do use Coca-Cola for medicinal purposes today. I use it for reducing nausea, increasing enzyme production and aiding digestion, and preventing some types of seizures and POTS attacks 😄 I'm not sure if other soft drinks would help as well, but cola seems to be the popular choice! It's also fun to drink...
I drink it for this reason too!
Another medical use for coca cola is unclogging feeding tubes! The first time my jujenostomy tube clogged so bad I had to go to the ER for help a nurse came into the bay armed with a few syringes and small can of coke! When the clog finally cleared we got sprayed with soda and cheered because it meant avoiding a trip to interventional radiology 😂
@IW3527 woah, I didn't know that! I'm really glad it helped, that's a handy tip!
Comment the second: it's interesting how many of these were advertised as treatments for croup. It's easy to think, "why the heck would you pour that down your kid's gullet?" But croup is so, so scary. When you hear your baby gasping so hard their breath is whistling you are desperate enough to try just about anything. My kids were babies in the early 2010s and croup sent them both to the ER for breathing treatments more than once, and we spent countless nights wrapped up in blankets sleeping with the windows open to let the cold air ease their breathing. If someone with any seemingly credible authority would have told me, "give kiddo x and it will help them" I can't say I wouldn't have at least tried it.
That's the thing for why these patent medicines were so popular. They marketed towards women specifically, who would be more likely to buy them because they were often less educated than men, but also and mostly because they were the ones largely taking care of the kids, and as such, they'd be more desperate for a cure that was fairly cheap and readily available.
Your first victorian medicine video was how I discovered your channel. Absolutely love this tier list so funny
6:25 "Tough Choice but I think I'm gonna go with death" sounds very memeable to me :>
Glad to see you back! One of my favourite podcasts, The Constant, did a really good couple of episodes about patent medicine, super intresting topic.
I just wanna say I love your videos they're so chill and fun you're like Ms. Frizzle but with history
Happy to see you back Kaz! Hope you’re feeling better!😄
No worries Kaz, there are much worse apologies involving cocaine that are possible. You ended up with the best possible one.
hey kaz, in the video you seem to think that the "eclectic" medicine refers to eletricity in the name, but i do believe that its more plausible that it comes from words like "ecletico" that are present in many latin-derived languages, which pretry much means "good for anything", the most common use of this word i can think of in portuguese is using eclectic to describe someone that likes to hear all music genders. so, i can not be sure about this claim but i do believe that its name does basically comes from its use as a general "good for anything" pain killer
Eclectic basically means that in English too.
But the medicine was "Eclectric", so I guess they were going for "Its eclectic! And sounds electric!"
I hope you're feeling okay. I've also had health problems and am glad to know I'm not the only one who imagines myself as a Victorian orphan dying of consumption in a romantic way.
The last Victorian medicine video was what introduced me to this great channel. So glad we got a sequel
Welcome back! New spaces always take a bit to settle into for me, I've done it sick too so I feel for ya! I liked this one as always. I would like to see your in-depth take on the Seven Sisters. I've seen quite a bit on them... I'd be the one to cut my hair & my ties with the family - take my money & run.
If I were to guess, the babies on 7-up packaging were to trick general audiences; remember it was created when most states were in prohibition so disguising a hangover cure as some general tummy tonic would help it look innocent to non-consumers
welcome back!🥰
its always funny to me how in america its 7up that cures upset stomachs and nausea but in russia and other slavic countries its coca cola, which i literally only had when i was car or sea sick. i heard many moms will have one bottle of it like locked up in a cabinet for those purposes only haha
But i also think its not that much used by slavic jewish people?
I'd say each country/region has their own traditional beverage that claims to cure nausea and other stomach illnesses. In Spain, it's a soda called Aquarius. I'd say the only thing it might be good for is to get a tiny bit of hydration and glucose into your system, but even then I doubt it has any actual real benefits.
The sugar syrup coats the stomach, which can help with nausea. I don’t think it matters what brand or has much to do with ethnicity.
If this was pro-wrestling, I'd start a WELCOME BACK chant.
Wow, you always manage to find such relevant clips from silent films for the end of your videos, that can't be easy! Enjoyable, interesting as always Kaz!
WELCOME BACK KAZ! I hope the move turns out for the best and that you are feeling better from your illnesses
Happy to see you back. Your videos always make me happy. I hope that you're feeling better and getting settled into your new place.
Congrats on the move! I'm looking forward to some local history highlights from your new area like you did for LA
I just wanted to say thank you for having close captions on your videos! The auto captions on other videos are so bad, it’s always a nice surprise to have actually written out captions I can read as a person with sensory processing issues!! So thank you, your videos are so entertaining and I love watching them while I work on stuff for my classes
yessss i loved the sawbones shoutout! it always seemed like a podcast you would like!
I love how kaz considered sassafras safe when it's the precursor to MDMA and is, by itself, essentially just MDA. I'm not blaming her, it's not common knowledge at all, but I'm just impressed by Victorian age people's desire to get turnt
I love your videos! One thing I learned about dr pepper (last night watching american pickers) was that it was also marketed as an energy drink, and some ads recommended drinking three a day… that would kill you now lol
Dr Pepper use to burn my nose as a child in the 70's. I use ginger ale for stomach issues.
I recently started listening to Sawbones, so that was a fun surprise! Great video btw, hope you're doing better after moving!
I was trying to figure out what was likely to have been in Maud's "drops" in Fingersmith and this was by FAR the best insight into what they probably were (chloroform and opium).
Thanks a million
Most of the sodas you talked about I already knew about because of Sawbones! They did a live show about soda fountains. It’s also funny that you referred to Sawbones in this video because one of your videos was sited as a source by Sawbones’ sister podcast Schmanners! I believe it was in their somewhat recent episode on Victorian sexuality.
Great to see you back Kaz! What a fun video and I can't wait to see part two. Take care of yourself and goodluck on the new place!
I’m so glad you’re feeling better and settling in and I’m so happy you’re back!! I really enjoyed this lol
Hey, I watched a few of your videos last night and thought they were really cool. I'm also into victorian culture. What would be really cool as a video, if you're interested on covering it, would be phrases and sayings in the victorian era and how they have evolved to the ones we know today.
Thanks for the videos, keep up the good work! XD
Your videos are such a great watch while knitting, thank you for continuing to create! ❤
Thank you for making this during such a stressful time! It brought me a lot of joy 💛 and I hope life is kind to you
Toast and Canada dry ginger ale or 7up were the cures for lots of ailments in my family. Coca-cola also used to sell Coke Syrup which was recommended for upset stomach, vomiting and diarrhea.