Dr. Seth Arnold’s Great Infantile Regulator

For Christmas this year, I received Picturesque Rhode Island, an 1881 guidebook to my native state. I love such antique manuals, as they often hold quaint forgotten information about familiar places.

(Looking online, I discover that the entire book has been digitized here, so that you can have your own virtual copy.)

The front and back sections of the volume are full of ads. Here are two for some nostrums that I am sure contained plenty of dope.

No wonder the citizens in the drawings all look so relaxed and peaceful!

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Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Comments

Seth's stuff is said to be good for "cancerous humors". Ya don't think that that stuff coming out of BBC do ya?

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 01/20/09 at 10:30 AM

I am such a sucker for old ads!!!!!
The artwork is great on so many of them and the wording is hysterical.

Posted by AGFH on 01/20/09 at 10:32 AM

Stephen5, back then all one needed to be a doctor was patience. 😉

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 01/20/09 at 11:14 AM

Isn't it a shame that they have outlawed all of the medication that actually WORKED.
Of course morphine will stop you coughing. Much more so than the crap they try to give you now. A good shot of whiskey works better than today's cough syrup.

Posted by AGFH on 01/20/09 at 11:21 AM

Beckers - that was my family's answer to all things that ail children. My grandmother was well known for her hot-totties(don't even go there).

Posted by Madd Maxx on 01/20/09 at 01:30 PM

Yeah, Big Gary, enough of it may end your life but you'll go out feeling like your on top of the world.

Posted by Madd Maxx on 01/20/09 at 02:28 PM

i used nyquil to detox from heroin...works great.

Posted by mrjazz on 01/21/09 at 02:53 PM

That's weird; I used heroin to detox from NyQuil.

Posted by kingmonkey in Athens, Ontario on 01/21/09 at 04:31 PM

nyquil is a tough one to break kingmonkey, i'm now on a mix of xanax, port wine and high-grade marijuana to keep me off of the nyquil!

Posted by mrjazz on 01/21/09 at 07:24 PM

thanks to dumbfounded- sounds like childs play for a hardcore addict like me.

and to patty- for making that connection. it honestly never occured to me. I must credit alcohol for being the major influence for my sexual liasons, because that was the only thing impairing the womens' judgement!

Posted by mrjazz on 01/23/09 at 03:57 PM

oh patty, you're too kind :red:

Posted by mrjazz on 01/23/09 at 06:04 PM

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