Blast from the past: A taste of our old medicines like Andrews Liver Salts
Nowadays, there’s a pill for every ill. Chemist and supermarket shelves groan under the weight of all manner of cure-alls, but it wasn’t always thus.
Many will recall their ‘medicine cabinets’ of yore, stocked with only a few basic remedies, such as good all-rounder TCP (just writing it, conjures up that eye-watering, antisceptic smell) for sore throats, grazed knees, pimples, and more.
Bunions, boils, toothaches, abscesses, chilblains, styes? Why, a bread poultice (a soggy confection made with white bread and milk, then applied to the troublesome area with a bandage) would soon give those bad boys the heave-ho.
Issues, ahem, with one’s digestive tract? Syrup of Figs was the go-to for prompt relief in that department.
Tummy troubles or heartburn? Milk of Magnesia would sort those out in a jiffy.
Rundown, feeling a bit lacklustre? Sanatogen Wine (if your iron levels didn’t go up, at least you’d feel merry about it).
And last but not least, the sadly discontinued, Andrews Liver Salts, great for ‘inner cleanliness’.
For upset tummies you’d be instructed to swallow it whilst it was still fizzy, but canny children also found it made a refreshing drink when mixed with orange squash (don’t try this at home kids!).