Evening star., 1942-07-20


Henry McLemor.. This alarms
me a bit because the majority OF
us, having had no medical. school,
ing. will have to fall back on the
remedies that were used on us as
children. For lack of any other
knowledge, we will have to treat
ourselves as mama, papa, auntie
and grandma treated us back around
the turn Of the century.
When I was child in Georgia
there were only a few standard
remedies for minor complaints.
One of them was kerosene and
sugar Where this prescription
came from no one knows, but
suspect that it was left by one OF
Sherman's men. 1t was very SIM
pie to prepare. Sugar was piled on
a tablespoon, then saturated from
the kerosene can. The only trick
was to catch the patient. 1t some
times required Is or 20 minutes to
run down a rundown child. Once
he was caught some one CASUALLY
father pinioned his arms and held
his head back with a hold your
breath good and hard and you
won't taste this, SON" Then some
one else usually mother poked
the spoon into the patients mouth
and held it there until he had
swallowed the contents.
Would Cut the Phlegm.
The great claim made for this
mixture was that it would "cut the
phlegm" I don't doubt it. If 1t
didn't cut the phlegm, that was the
only thing it didn't cut, including
the eye teeth. For hours after the
dose the patient would go about
smelling like lamp wick, and with
a taste in his mouth that made
him long for a mothball to suck.
Turpentine was the No. l anti
septic in those days. 1t was poured
on any and all kinds of wounds.
Let a dog bite you and turpentine
was poured on. Step on a rake
with your bare feet and turpentine
was poured in each little puncture,
just as butter is poured in the
marks on waffles. Between the ages
Of 6 and IL most boys of my time
smelled like a clerk in a naval
stores warehouse.
For the babies, there were medi-
cines known as "calmentatives."
They derived their name from the
fact that they contained enough
paregoric to calm the most fractions
infant. I am quite sure that if the
FBI found you with an old-style
"calmentative" on you today they
would arrest you for running drugs.
Being minister's son. who was
taken to church at the age of 6
months on big feather pillow.
! there is no telling how many slugs
OF "calmentative" was given be-
fore collection was taken up.
CalOmel G0t Big Play.
Calomel got big play In those
days Taking it was bad enough,
but the fear of being "salivated" by
it was worse. Every one had a tale
to tell of friend who had been
"salivated" and lost his teeth, turned
yellow, and generally fell to pieces.
1t was mighty easy to get "sali-
vated," to hear people talk. If you
ate too much after calomel you were
doomed. An orange on top of CAL
omel would bring about the dread
result. So would watermelon. After
dose OF calomel was as careful OF
my diet as st. Simon Stylites.
Rhubarb and soda was a standard
prescription, whether you needed
it or not. Just as soon as the rhu-
barb (or pie plant started sprout-
ing, the children started getting it.
The grown-ups evidently figured
that with so much rhubarb around,
it would be pretty careless of them
not to feed it to the young 'uns.
Grantland Rice tells me that 4
compound of vinegar and alum was
standard Tennessee mixture for
the young folk
I'VE got it inside and out" he
recalled wryly. 1T was thought to
be sure cure for poison ivy. which
some member of our family always
had. I can feel it being rubbed on
me now. 1t would sort of pucker
you up like midget and burn like
the combined fireplaces of the bad
place. The only relief was to break
into the open and run round and
round the house like a dog with a
can tied on its tail It was much
worse than poison ivy when left
alone
Everybody got quinine, too. re-
member my Uncle Shackleford. who
was raised on rice plantation in
South Carolina. saying he was fed
so much quinine as boy that peo-
pie living in the other end of town
could hear the bells ringing in his
ears.
Good-by, doctors!
And if you ever get hold OF
Jap, please prescribe kerosene and
sugar.
Distributed BY McNsuCht Syndicate, Inc)