Lunedi Lunacy

Ever stopped to think why our grandparents and great-grand parents had such fond memories of their childhood? Why they thought of them as golden, dreamlike days of blissful happiness? Well frankly its a wonder they remember anything at all.

Here's some of the cool stuff they gave kids (and adults) back then.

A bottle of Bayer's Heroin. Between 1890 and 1910 heroin was sold as a "non-addictive" substitute for morphine - and highly recommended to cure a child's strong cough!

Coco wine was a great favourite with Metcalf's and Mariani being only two amongst a meriade of cocaine infused concoctions which if they would not exactly cure you were guaranteed to make you very happy.  Why Pope Leo XIII carried a bottle around with him - and even awarded Angelo Mariani with a Papal gold medal.

Maltine did Mariani nine better and got ten gold medals for its coca infused wine.  Suggested dosage for an adult was one glass before or after each meal to aid digestion.  For children?  Only half a glass - you don't want to over stimulate small appetites.

This paperweight was a friendly reminder that Boemringer und Soehne had the distinction of being the world's largest manufacturers of Quinine and cocaine products.  A dubious honour today.

And for the asthmatic what could be better than 40% alcohol mixed with 3 grams of opium - is it any wonder their breathing became relaxed?

And no actor, singer or preacher would be caught without their box of throat lozenges.  How could it no make them "speak the speech .... trippingly on the tongue". 

And for your little one's aching tooth these drops promised "instant relief" and pretty much guaranteed a happy child.  And you can forgiven if you read "druggies" rather than "druggists". 

And finally for the colicky or teething baby Stickney and Poor's gentle mixture of 46% alcohol and 1 3/16 grams of opium would guarantee they would sleep through the night. 

And you ask why they were called "the Good Old Days"?????

Many thanks to Elaine for these insights into the "happy" if slightly stoned days of yore.

04 aprile - Sant'Isidoro di Siviglia