I’m looking for some funny or odd names of medicine that was used back in the day like snake oil or whatnot.
I’m going to my friends birthday soon and she used to be a pharmacist, so I bought some old pharmacy bottles to decorate with funny names for her kitchen. But I don’t know much about the stuff, so I could use some help and google isn’t helpful since i don’t know what to look for lol.
You guys know something fun or weird? Thanks in advance
Anyone knows some funny or odd names of old medicine?
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Peregoric. Back in the 70s, I was routinely given peregoric because I got upset stomachs from school stress.
It’s made of opium. That’s right. Opium. And
It was prescribed to me when I was 7 for help me get through spelling tests. It was a bright green liquid.
Turpentine, liniment, and tonic
My grandma gave my brother and I something that looked like it had little particles of plastic floating on top. Don’t recall the name but we called it “chill tonic” because we got the chills it was so bad.
Horny Goatweed?
Granny Aching’s Special Sheep Liniment.
You probably already have it, but Laudanum. It has a fairly long history, apparently, but by the 18th century it was opium in alcohol — and readily available.
Laudanum was the common one, opium dissolved in alcohol
Heroin was the name of a new teething syrup
for infants. That is where those chemicals got their name.
Cod Liver Oil
Sasparilla
We did this for Halloween last year at work, created a cabinet of curiosities. Got brown paper luggage tags and wrote the labels on those.
You could go a bit Macbeth, eye of newt et.c., there’s always Ether too which is really fun, try it if you’re ever offered some!
Fever tree is an old name for the tree who’s bark contains quinine, which is a key ingredient in tonic water and was used to treat malaria back in the good old days of the Empire (s/ in case that isn’t obvious)
Tonic wine was actually a thing, maybe a Google will give you a fun old name.
Mrs. Moffat’s Shoo-Fly Powders for Drunkenness
Carter’s Little Liver Pills
Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup
Hamlin’s Wizard Oil
Syrup of Ipecac used to induce vomiting.
“Reds” aka Seconal
Coca-Cola, originally marketed as a nerve tonic and headache remedy. So to us now, Coca-Cola is an odd name for a medication.
Utter balm,
Mercurochrome. The word is a trade name for a solution of merbromin, a topical antibacterial agent.
Husk Salve, (drawing salve)
Bone knit- actually boiled comfrey for bruising etc
Also remember rubbing Sloans liniment on my backside, following a hard days’ horse riding. Burnt so bad, I spent hours in a cold bath to ease the pain!
Vick’s ointment
Grandparents rub it under our nose, on our chest. For any runny nose, allergy or pneumonia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alchemical_substances
A few years before the AIDS crisis, a diet pill came out in the US called “Ades”.