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Ship’s Medicine Chest

All captains took aboard medicine chests filled with bottles of strange concoctions. Jamaica Ginger and Rhubarb Syrup were the usual dose for a stomach ache.

For jaundice there was bitters to cleanse the blood from humors, dropsy, croup and worms. And there were Arwood’s Strengthening Plasters which applied between the shoulder blades, relieved most forms of weakness. Dried rattlesnake skins were the favorite cure-all. For a cold or cold symptoms the best known remedy was snails boiled in white wine or olive oil.

Parents were warned by the best authorities against giving consumptive babies baths. Indeed, baths were not considered in the early days of our ancestors.

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