Intestinal Chimney Sweeps

Back in the early twentieth century, the French laxative Jubol ran an ad campaign that featured tiny chimney sweeps climbing up into intestines and scrubbing them out.

It reminds me of that old urban legend about Richard Gere and the gerbils.

Image source: vintage-ads — historical source: Rire - Dec 14, 1918

"Voila le petit ramoneur de l'intestin..." (Here's the little chimney sweep of the intestines)
L'Illustration - June 10, 1916

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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

Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 28, 2020
Category: Health | Advertising | 1910s

Comments

A pretty brutal treatment. Even worse, they’re underpaid orphans.

Posted by Brian on 03/29/20 at 08:54 PM

I wander into chemists / druggists / pharmacies when I'm visiting abroad. Sometimes I find remedies that could sell here in the U.S., and in some cases I'm not sure why. One example is a water soluble analgesic similar to Goody Headache powder, only in tablet form. It is very handy for travelling but I've not seen them here. My next trip to France, I'll look to see if this product is still sold.

Posted by KDP on 03/29/20 at 09:24 PM

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