From: firstinitiallastname@texas.net   
      
   Rare Bird wrote:   
      
   > In article ,   
   > rgraham18@sbcglobal.net says...   
   >   
   >>No my bad. The article I read said they used laudanum for pain. Then it   
   >>explained laudanum for the time was used like Valium is used today. So I had   
   >>valium on my mind.   
   >   
   >   
   > No problem. It's a fairly well-known fact that   
   > many of the elixirs and so-called pain killers   
   > available were addictive, for one reason or   
   > another. Not the least of the reasons was the   
   > high alcohol content in many of the elixirs.   
   > Easy availability or over-the-counter cocain was another.   
   >   
   > When I was a kid, mid 20th century, there was   
   > a product that was sold under the HADACOL(sp?)   
   > label that was a holdover from the healing   
   > elixir days. The old bottles that these "remedies"   
   > were sold in were often embossed - the glass was   
   > embossed with the lettering - and those old bottles   
   > are collector's items today. I had two bottles at   
   > one time that bore the lettering "Doctor Hotstettler's   
   > Stomach Bitters." If I ever knew what "stomach   
   > bitters" were good for, I've since forgotten. Cheers.   
   >   
   >   
   Dyspepsia, loss of appetite, most any sort of stomach trouble when   
   compounded of quinine, gentian, chamomile, goldenseal root or rhubarb.   
   In a good slug of alcohol, of course. Bitters was also used for some   
   laxatives. Dr. Hotstettler's was the most popular. Did $1,000,000 a year   
   in sale for many years. Prohibition took them down.   
      
   --   
                          Gerald Clough   
       "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)