The Swedish School of Physical Culture Was In Ireland

An ad inside the 1977 J. Gruber's Hagers-Town, Town and Country Almanack.

Ha Ha, Your Momma Took Penicillin

Searching for old letters to illustrate my article at Inherited Values (yes, I need another website to write at, thank-you-very-much), I found this gem of a blog, Matrilineal, by Linda (a jackass owner), who is transcribing 15 years of previously unread family letters. Sadly I did not find any scans of the old letters (I just love looking at them; it's almost as good as holding them), but when you find entires like this one dated December 6, 1954, you can forgive nearly anything:

I was so scared and horrified when I read that you had taken penicillin. No wonder the doctor tested your heart. Don't ever take it again. After taking it several times it reacts on the heart and often causes death in a few minutes. Don't let any doctor give you any more of it.

Vintage Rhyming & Illustrated Hygiene Advice

Jane clears her nose,
into dainty silk
kerchief

Then wipes her
eye with same

And in 48 hours
an eye infection
made her sore and lame

Always Use paper Tissue For Your Nose And Discard It

From an old copy of Encyclopedia Of Medical Self-Help.

Playing Doctor: Scrubs & Beyond

I was reading Slip's post about how fashionable scrubs are now and it got me thinking... Maybe scrubs are the new aprons.

But more than that, I'm thinking hubby needs some scrubs. I'm tired of him ruining all his jeans and shirts with all this projects -- not to mention when we do Science In The Kitchen stuff with the kids. The Landau scrubs lab coats would be especially cool for that. (He always has reminded me of Beaker the Muppet. ...And then we could play doctor. They're only $20. Such thrills!)



Come to think of it, I wish they made scrubs in kids sizes. Science In The Kitchen gets messy sometimes.

Practicality of scrubs aside, I'm loving the kitschy fun of scrubs. There's the NASCAR scrubs, a ladybug print, cheeky monkeys, candy corn printed scrubs...



And yup, Betty Boop.



Get yer Cherokee scrub pants, Landau medical scrubs, at Scrubs & Beyond.

Hires Root Beer Package, 1890

Make five gallons of beer for just a quarter -- and it's medicinal!



Ad in the December, 1890 issue of Peterson's Magazine.

Head Games

Phrenology trinket boy available from AirportRoad at Etsy.

7 Years Of Constipation

By then I think you'd be dead.



Ad found in 1936, True Confessions.

Look Maw...No Anemia!

Lucky for Wilbur the Pig, Charlotte had minored in veterinarian medicine during her years at Wellesley, and was able to save his life by outlining, in her web, a week-long regiment of iron supplements to help his fading health. This is from an ad for anti-pig-anemia medication in 1960. Piglet anemia is a big deal for hog raisers, and in the '60s they used Armidexan, an iron-dextran compound that isn't marketed anymore. Armidexan was produced by Armour Pharmaceuticals, and any meat-lover should make this connection: Armour and Company was king of pre-packaged meats for much of the twentieth century. Tasty, tasty, non-anemic meats.

Susan Has A Headache

What will stop it, once and for all?


OK, so this photo captioned "Until The Doctor Arrives" (from 1954's The Family Physician) is all about first aid treatment for poison, but just saying that would be far less fun.

Marvels From 1954's The Family Physician -- Or Bad HMO?

Within the pages of The Family Physician, by Dr. Herman Pomeranz & Dr. Irvin S. Koll, 1954, there are many things to marvel at. On the inset photo page between 142 & 143 we find the following marvels:

A Miracle Of Modern Science

Nail swallowed by four-year-old boy was successfully withdrawn from his duodenum when doctors induced him to gulp chocolate malted milk containing magnet attached to a thread. X-ray shows magnet in contact with nail, which appears as curved line beneath it.

Self-Operation

Photograph shows doctor removing his own appendix; assistant and nurse helped him to hold instruments. He did this to "get patient's attitude."

If I had to choose between gulping chocolate milk with a magnet & thread (just like mom used to make!) or operating on myself, I'd gulp, baby.

I can't even understand the "get patient's attitude" dealio-mcbob. I mean are there patients who actually operate on themselves? Or was the unnamed doc responding to those patients who, like visitors to art galleries, think they can do that themselves.

Doctors Recommend You Lose Your Marbles

Inside The Family Physician, by Dr. Herman Pomeranz & Dr. Irvin S. Koll, 1954, comes this exercise to strengthen your feet. (Or so it says; the whole section is a set of incredulous health & beauty moves for women, including the old 'slap under your chin' exercise).


It directs you to:

Scatter marbles about floor and try to pick them up with your toes. Curl toes around marbles, hold them for a few seconds. Alternate feet. Do this for about five minutes.

Nowhere does it say to remove the marbles from the floor, which isn't very safe, Doctors. Tsk tsk.

An old ex of mine would have been excellent at this. He could pick a pencil up with his toes and write -- as in long to-do lists & full-length letters. Creepy.

...But, he did have beautiful, shapely legs, as attested every Halloween with his cross-dressing costumes. (Yeah, I think we know why he's an ex; no woman wants her man to draw more wolf-whistles for his legs than she can get.) So perhaps a lady could do well to improve her toe dexterity.

Modern Woman Monday: Consumption Information Gives Me The Vapors

From pages 96 & 97 in Pathfinder Physiology No. 3, Hygienic Physiology, by Joel Dorman Steele, PhD., 1888.


First an illustration of the "deformity" of tight lacing of corsets (which I've already disputed -- NWS), then this gem on "consumption":

Consumption is a disease which destroys the substance of the lungs. Like other lung difficulties, it is caused by a want of pure air, a liberal supply of which is the best treatment that can be prescribed for it.*

...* If I were seriously ill of consumption, I would live outdoors day and night, except in rainy weather or midwinter; then I would sleep in an unplastered log house. Physic has no nutriment, gaspings for air can not cure you, monkey capers in a gymnasium can not cure you, stimulants can not cure you. What consumptives want is pure air, not physic, plenty of meat and plenty of bread, -- Dr. Marshall Hall.

I've always heard consumption and the vapers were catch-alls for undiagnosed illnesses, like cancer, and/or diseases in the minds of fragile women. But in case I am wrong, anyone tried monkey capers for their consumption?