Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Wikipedia entry of the day: "Paregoric"

How many of you know what paregoric is? I had gone my entire 50 years without ever having heard of it (other than, perhaps, in a passing reference in some old novel), until the THGF mentioned that it is a very effective symptomatic treatment for, well, vomiting. Too bad the gummint banned it. Must have been the opium.

6 comments:

  1. I remember paragoric. Nasty nasty tasting stuff. Apparently lots of mothers and kids got addicted. Used to be sold over the counter.

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  2. I remember hearing about it as a kid... It was used for horrid diarrhea, coughing, and vomiting. Peristaltically-related issues.... I think of it every now and again when I get bronchitis--the cough medicine with codeine has similar anti-tussive effects...

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  3. I bet I know which old novel, too.

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  4. I was born in 1945, and I remember getting it as a kid, for toothache. I remember it tasted horrible.

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  5. Is it banned? How about that, I had not idea...I too hated it as a child.

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  6. In the 60s we used to smoke tobacco saturated with paregoric and pretended to get high.

    In actuality, it didn't do a damn thing.

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