Good For What Ails You #5

I was going to post something celebrating this blog's 100,000th visitor yesterday, but I'm a little under the weather and just didn't have the energy. Instead, I am on the search through these trade cards from the 1880s for a remedy that will make me feel better.

I don't really have a cough, but the cough drops might make me feel better anyway, especially if they're the old fashioned kind.

The backs of these cards promise me that they are cheap, harmless, pleasant, and effective.

There are some other brands I could try too.

The Red Cross Cough Syrup says it's good for whooping cough too. Nichols Bark and Iron seems to cover everything, including malaria, general debility, nervous prostration, and hypochondria. It must have a very high alcohol content! It also has Calisaya bark and iron in it. Where's the laudanum?

I don't know.  I'm feeling a little tired, but maybe I need to mix up my own elixir. I turn to my best resource book: Dr Chase's Recipes or Information for Everybody, published in 1867. The book contains sections for farriers, painters, and leather workers, in addition to the medical advice. I sometimes wonder if they get mixed up, since linseed oil does appear in some of the medical recipes. Maybe it just slipped over from the furniture refinishing department.

In any case, here are a few recipes for your amusement. Good luck finding the ingredients. I guess people just used to go to their grocer or pharmacist for these things? Try going to your pharmacist and asking for an ounce of Turkey opium.

Paregoric is also prepared with opium, just in case you thought this recipe was opium free.

  I know that a number of these recipes call for laudanum. Here's a recipe for that.

It seems that my pharmacist is out of Wahoo, spikenard root, and tamarack bark, so I think I'll just go to bed.

Beware the Escolar, My Son

This is a special warning post to protect my dear readers from harm by fish. I write this because we have increasingly encountered this particular fish on restaurant menus, a fish that should not be there. Eat it at your peril. We did, and now we know better.

The fish is called Escolar or Snake Mackerel, but more often is listed on menus as Super-White Tuna, Walu, Butterfish, and even as Sea Bass and Black Cod and a number of other fish that it isn't.  This is a misrepresentation. It's hard to say if this is the fault of the fish wholesaler or the restaurant, but it's dishonest. The best thing to do is to ask the waiter if it's the same thing as Escolar and hope that you get the correct answer...or order something else. If you order the fish, it will be very rich and delicious, and you would be unlikely to attribute the alarming after effects to this tasty fish. That said, there have been lawsuits against restaurants. It is currently illegal to sell the fish in Japan and Italy. Some countries allow it to be sold, but only with a warning. It was also prohibited in the United States until the 1990s, but now it's legal to sell and becoming more common.

Now, you're probably wondering what this fish does. I will not describe it here, but will guide you to a few informative links including Wikipedia and the Medellitin Food Blog . I would also mention that it is probably (?) safe to eat the fish in a tiny portion such as on a sushi roll. Many sources claim that if you keep the serving under six ounces you should be fine. I can tell you from experience, (we split an 8-oz portion) that that's not true. There are also claims that only 1 in 3 people have problems with it. I don't buy that either.

  Here is the back of the last card, associating good health with the fish. Believe it if you will.

Tram Tuesday - Berlin, Germany

As you can see, this gentleman is balancing the tram on his head. And yet he looks so nonchalant.

It's a shame that someone removed the stamp. It wasn't likely worth much anyway, and the postcard loses something important in the process, not just the stamp, but the cancellation date. We can make a pretty accurate guess though based on the cancellation message, which urges people to join the Reichluftschutzbund, the State Air Protection Corps., which was formed in 1933.

The Berlin tram system was (and is) extensive. It was one of the earliest tram systems, with the first public line opening in 1847. Most of the lines that ended up on the western side of the city after World War II were replaced with bus routes, but the East Berlin system remained largely intact.



The message on the back of the card reads:

I'm having a very nice time in Berlin and wish it could last forever. With best regards Edith Flemming

Edith could not have foreseen the horrors of World War II, just around the corner. She could not have known that this part of Berlin would become East Berlin and that the remains of the palace would be demolished in 1951. She would not have wanted to stay forever though, that is certain.