Cure-Alls With a Kick
Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 1883
'When Johnny came marching home from the Civil War, he was likely to have suffered from one of the so-called camp diseases. He was also likely to have treated himself with a patent medicine, such as Radway's Ready Relief, claimed to have cured some dosed troops from the 8th Main afflicted with dysentery.
Johnny carried the home remedy habit into civilian life, thus giving a great boost to the patent-medicine industry.'
In the period 1870 to 1900, virtually every ailment had its own ready cure:
Indigestion....Hostetter's Celebrated Stomach Bitters
Chronic fatigue....Ayer's Sarsaparilla
Aching muscles....Barker's Liniment--"Joy to the world, relief has come!"
There were elixirs for those who felt they lacked sex appeal. Egyptian Regulator Tea would bring graceful plumpness to flat-chested girls. Rengo medicine would turn fat into muscle for flabby men.
When a fiftyish Massachusetts housewife marketed her cure for "female weakness" the public responded so warmly that Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound grossed $300,000 in 1883, just three years after Mrs. Pinkham sold her 1st six bottles for $5. A handsome leap indeed.
There were, of course, two fundamental facts about the whole patent-medicine business. It was a fraud. And second, virtually all the most popular patents were loaded with either hard drugs or alcohol.'
Do you think this might have something to do with this society's present condition? Mental wacko.
posted by jm at 2:06 AM
19 Comments:
Righto, jm. Sounds to me like evidence of a prominent Neptune in Virgo in America's birthchart.
I wonder how much of a boost the Civil War gave to the patent medicine mindset. Did it get going earlier in the development of urban areas ridden with nasty and fatal epidemics? The war certainly gave a big boost to efforts directed toward effective public sanitation.
And you are absolutely correct pd.
The Sibly chart has Neptune near the MC. I've always thought this was a major influence. Our fantasy image in the world for one which just got knocked out of orbit by the Pluto transit.
The White Knight, especially from after WWII, is no more.
There are records of patent-medicine advertising from the 1840's, but I think medicine always has had hocus pocus around somewhere. The body is such a mystery and yet we live our whole lives in them!
ah, iatrogenic disease, a big topic of immense interest.
In homeopathy we have a term; "miasm" or old disease residue which is carried by generations laying down the foundations of our illnesses and predispositions.
The native people of the NW Coast identified it also. The influences that could destroy the health of a tribe were known as the supernatural entites that came from afar... outside the tribe, not from our ancestors. Dzonoqua the wild woman of the forest and Bukwus the wild man could steal your children away and they would never belong to you again. Want to guess what the symptom picture discribed by the myths were?
Gonorrhoea and Syphilis.
We all carry the imprint of many innoculations and "foreign" dis-eases, none of us will ever again be the children of our ancestors.
Some in my community feel that a serious new miasm has begun, one related to hormones in Birth Control Pills.... violence, mania are two of the overt symptoms.
Sometimes it seems so simple, we create the world we want to live in. We've been mighty reckless and acting without responsiblility, it's all someone else's fault, a conspiracy, i hear it so, so often. Lately i have been recommending my clients, keep a journal of gratitude, as a way to see the connection between receiving giving and the consequences of thinking you are not part of the whole.
i guess, she says sheepishly, this just shows that i have moon and south node in virgo 7th house?
thanks for the use of your soapbox, jm.
And -pd- i am in complete agreement about the public sanitation, my assessment is that clean water and sewage control did more to eliminate the big epiemics than immunizations.
Some in my community feel that a serious new miasm has begun, one related to hormones in Birth Control Pills.... violence, mania are two of the overt symptoms.
This does not surprise me at all. The endocrine system is so intricately balanced that injecting more hormone into from outside is problematical at best . . . and now we're starting to see the worst.
There was news here recently about young women developing breast cancer that ate red meat 2 or 3 times a day. The problem with the meat was that it came from cattle given growth hormones. I've been doing a "Cassandra" on this subject for years . . .
Another irony . . . my mother's doctor told her "no prepackaged, pre-prepared foods - too much hidden sodium." My folks have been depending on the quick & easy food for the last 10 - 15 years, and I know there are literally millions of others who do the same. Shoot, lots of people don't even know what to do with raw vegies, much less deal with meat on the hoof . . .
Are we in the beginning phases of reaping what we have sown by choosing the easy way/profit first way?! Saturn in Virgo & Pluto moving into Capricorn will bring many more eye openers.
Ho!Ho! the season is here.
I've just come in from outside the stars are a sparkling glory overhead and my neighbor's house up the road is twinkling and shining brigthly as well. I expect others will be flipping the switch on their christmas lights, now that someone has bravely done so, breaking the unwrittnen "not 'til after thanksgiving rule."
note to self abundance check tomorrow.
"Are we in the beginning phases of reaping what we have sown by choosing the easy way/profit first way?! Saturn in Virgo & Pluto moving into Capricorn will bring many more eye openers."
You could be right about the astrology neith. As far as pathology goes i'd say we are in a progressed state. In the early 80's when i first joined the state Homeopathic Medical Society, there were very few of us, we all knew each other. In fact we mostly all knew each other at the national conventions. By the mid 90's MDs were entering in large numbers and the primary reason they gave was the iatrogenic illnesses - that is diseases caused by drugs.
It is not just the consumer who finds it difficult to sift the truth from the hype in health care.
Very interesting.
The miasm.old disease residue which is carried by generations laying down the foundations of our illnesses and predispositions.
I go along with this. The patterns in the charts among generations tell the same story, as do patterns in the communities, countries, etc.
We've been mighty reckless and acting without responsiblility, it's all someone else's fault, a conspiracy, i hear it so, so often. Lately i have been recommending my clients, keep a journal of gratitude
What a great suggestion, tseka. One of my major interests. I don't know why gratitude is neglected so much.
Neith.Saturn in Virgo & Pluto moving into Capricorn will bring many more eye openers.
I do believe so. Just in the nick of time.
By the mid 90's MDs were entering in large numbers and the primary reason they gave was the iatrogenic illnesses - that is diseases caused by drugs.
This must be faced. And thanks for the identity, Oh Knowledgeable One. I didn't know that word. Very important concept to me.
I think this is a big deal in cancer and the treatments. I would imagine that it's setting up miasms in later generations and perpetuating weaknesses along with breaking down the system from treatment.
The whole being is brutally attacked with these treatments. I suppose that's the underlying pattern in the person, but I sure would love to see the day when we own these ailments and understand what, why, and how, and alternative methods that work. Acceptance is part of what will make them work.
tseka, thanks for using the term "miasm." Over the weekend (it's now Monday morning, too early for me at least to be very sharp-brained) the word "miasma" popped up and I meant to look it up. All of a sudden it seemed like a "big" word I should pay attention to. I suppose it's defined in much the same way as the homeopathic context.
And as for the gratitude journal, a terrific idea. You're a gem.
Neith wrote: Are we in the beginning phases of reaping what we have sown by choosing the easy way/profit first way?!
I'd say so. A few generations ago, everyone did for themselves, grew their own food and prepared it themselves. Somehow, that ethos was lost or badly damaged, leading to later generations that think that food comes from the store and not the land. They think food is meant to be microwaved and be loaded with MSG, salt and preservatives, and laced with gov't subsidized substances like sugar and corn syrup.
And we're paying a huge price with soaring obesity, diabetes and heart disease that Big Pharma is only too glad to address with their drugs.
And we're paying a huge price with soaring obesity, diabetes and heart disease that Big Pharma is only too glad to address with their drugs.
Absolutely true. But then consider this and it's what fascinates me about life and metaphysics.
The obesity probably would have come one way or another with the Cancer stellium of the USA and the SN in the 2nd...greed.
The heart disease related to the NN in Leo and not getting to our treasure "chest" of love and confidence.
Whatever happened in the past it's part of where we are now so it's really quite impossible to pinpoint the causes, although I think they are underneath and in-between. So are the solutions.
I think it's too simplistic to blame corporations for our predicament. The human family created these monsters and continues to feed them. How many of us refuse to buy from them when we can? And we still can, but it COSTS MORE. The lust for cheap commodities is uiversal.
People counted on the elites to deliver the vast amount of goods they desired as cheap as possible. So shipping, mining, oil wells, and all were controlled by the wealthy.
We love our automobiles but who among us would like to man an oil well?
So the contract between the corps and the common people is written. We are as responsible as anyone. And the negotion to health and a better life will proceed more smoothly when this is recognized.
The finger of blame travels 360 degrees.
It's interesting in the wholeness vs the broken up parts. When we analyze we think we see it clearly and can locate cause and effect. But this could be flawed. When we see the whole it paints a different picture. This is one of the most interesting things for me in the observation of all the complication.
To expound on this a little further since it's an opportunity to go into the SN in Taurus/2nd House...
The South Node there is a fear of poverty, of being without. There could be an ancient memory of starvation. In this country it's true. So many people settled here after starving elsewhere. When they suddenly arrived in all this abundance, I think they overloaded, fearing a return to want. Then the sudden shock of the Depression actually made this real.
The Cancer hoards commodities for rainy days. So all of this is deep in the psyche of the society.
I think part of the solution is developing trust that it all won't be snatched away.
I think part of the solution is developing trust that it all won't be snatched away.
Just about every thing I've learned says the key to the fear of being without is to turn inward . . . if we feel complete within ourselves, we seldom feel deprived in a material sense. Those who grasp after externals to affirm their worth are seldom going to ever feel they have enough. Jupiter in Sagittarius can help us find the riches within . . . no?! :-)
Absolutely neith. And it's so much more convenient to go inward. No travel, no cost, no rejection.
This is a beautiful, bountiful new moon conjunct Jupiter leading up to the transition. Can I ever feel it.
Jupiter in Sagittarius can help us find the riches within . . . no?! :-)
The jackpot!
I find Bloghdad to be a strange mixture of reaching out and staying in at the same time. It's odd. No expenditure, just of our own energy and thought. But a world of riches in an unusual form.
I've thought for a while that the trend would cut down consumption in the outer world. With all the minuses, the young people are having a new experience, cost effective and resource saving.
With all the minuses, the young people are having a new experience, cost effective and resource saving.
I believe I just read somewhere the dating site E-Harmony is bringing about 90 marriages a month . . . however, the very young kids need to learn caution when adventuring in this free form world. Neptune must be actively involved in the creation of places like My Space. What we would appreciate as a delicately wrought illusion, for an adolescent would be an opportunity for severe disillusion. Neptune is a tricky one . . .
No Kidding.
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