Old medicine/herbal/home remedies?

Question

I'm looking for some medicine/herbal practices/home remedies that would have been used pre 1950. What I'm actually looking for is a BAD medicine, heh. Something that people used but it was found out later to have actually been harmful. Really harmful. No, I'm not going to poison anyone. This is for a history project of sorts and I'm having trouble finding anything.

Answer 1

Mercury as medicine when in fact, years later, it became known as "mercury poisoning."

A HUGE problem was the use of MERCURY as medicine. It was a very popular old time remedy and practice which killed so many people. It even killed kings and emperors.

FAMOUS VICTIMS OF MERCURY MEDICINE (NOW REFERRED TO AS MERCURY POISONING):

The first emperor of unified China, Qin Shi Huang Di, was driven insane and killed by mercury pills intended to give him eternal life.
King Charles was also known to have suffered from syphilis and the main ingredient in the medicine used to treat syphilis in those days was mercury.
The comic-book writer, Kurt Busiek was diagnosed as suffering from mercury poisoning in 2005.
Louisa May Alcott, author or 'Little Women' (a book based on her life growing up with her 3 sisters) amongst other books, died of mercury poisoning.
Louisa was born in Pennsylvania in 1832. During the American Civil War, Louisa was a nurse. She contracted typhoid fever, and although she recovered, she suffered the lasting effects of mercury poisoning. At the time, doctors used Calomel, which was a drug laden with mercury to cure typhoid. With the poisoning beginning to take it effect, Louisa still managed to write her final novel titled 'Jo's Boys', which was published in 1886. Louisa died 2 days after her father, on March 6 1888 in Boston Massachusetts, at the age of 56.

From 1932 to 1968 methyl mercury was released into the sea around the city of Minamata in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan. The toxin bioaccumulated in fish, which when eaten by the local population caused the largest case of mercury poisoning known. Minamata disease caused the deaths of over 1000 people and permanently disabled a great many more.
Another case of widespread mercury poisoning occurred in rural Iraq in 1971-1972, when grain treated with a methyl mercury-based fungicide was used by the rural population to make bread. It had been intended as seed stock for planting.
In December 1997, a chemistry professor, Karen Wetterhahn, working at Dartmouth College in the United States spilled a drop of dimethyl mercury on her latex glove. She began experiencing the symptoms of mercury poisoning within 5 months of the exposure and, despite treatment, died a few months later.
In April of 2000, one Dr. Alan Chmurny attempted to kill a former employee, Marta Bradley, by pouring mercury into the ventilation system of her car.

Answer 2

Anything can be deemed 'harmful' especially when Christian Zealots condemn anything God put on Earth such as Canabis and Cocaine and Opium while sanctifying man's efforts to mangle chemical in order to create a new wonder drug such as the one that led to a rash of deformities in the late 1950s.
http://pubs.acs.org/journals/pharmcent/Ch4.html
""In 1958, a saccharin-based artificial sweetener was introduced to the American public. That year also marked the beginning of the thalidomide tragedy (in which the use of a new tranquilizer in pregnant women caused severe birth defects), ""

But going back before 1950 - - - most likely the most horific was the use of a Lobotomy to correct behaviorial problems. While many will argue that canabis & cocaine & other 'drugs' are EVIL I am still convinced that poking an ice pink around an eye ball and destroying the frontal lobes of the brain is barbaric. Especially since it was a favorite 'cure' for hysterical wiomen. See the Elizabeth Taylor / Katherine Hepburn film 'Suddenly, Last Summer.'

For a fervid period during teh 1940's into the 1950's Lobotimies were promoted along with Electro Shock Therapy and Insulin Therapy to 'cure' 'metal disorders.'

Peace

Answer 3

There is a book called McKenzie's 5000 receipts, published in the 19th century, which contains nothing but old fashioned recipes for medicines and cooking. One of the receipts I remember is for stopping a nosebleed. You should apply ice...to the testicles. Personally i'd just as soon bleed for a while.
You might also be interested in looking at some "receipts" that appeared in early American almanacs. "A Topical Index to early United States Almanacs." will give you an idea of where to begin and what kinds of diseases were treated. Powdered earth worms were thought to be of medicinal value. Tobacco smoke was thought to be of medicinal value. They recommended blowing tobacco smoke into the rectum in order to revive victims of drowning.

Answer 4

If you get diarrhea easily eat some blueberries, it works. If you go to a foreign country take some dried blueberries with ya just in case take six, that should do the trick My dad never went to a doctor he thought 6 oz of blue berry wine would cure any thing. On the other hand if you are constipated watch a really funny movie, laugh like h---that should do the job.

Answer 5

Laudanum, cannabis and cocaine used as OTC medication in the 1900s.

http://www.poppies.org/faq/advanced-usage/what-is-laudanum/

Mercury-based ointments and potions.

Answer 6

Paregoric for babies. Know what that was?

Old home & back-alley abortions.

There's a start for ya.

Answer 7

Here is a long list.... http://www.personalhealthzone.com/herbsafety.html