Categories
1900-1949 Pharmaceuticals

Take the Blue Pill, 1938

“Titbits Book of Wrinkles” from 1938 is another one of my favourite type of book – the compendium of knowledge. “Wrinkles” in this book mean “tips” or, as in the (slightly annoying) word of the moment, “hacks”.

This is an oddity from the “Medicine” section – a recommendation to take the “Blue Pill”.

This inspired a bit of history-surfing. I found out that this blue pill was also called “blue mass” and was quite popular as a cure-all in the nineteenth century.

Abraham Lincoln liked them and they may have caused him to suffer the effects of mercury poisoning earlier in his life – http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/07/0717_lincoln.html

But doesn’t 1938 seem a bit late for recommendations to eat mercury?

By Estelle

I am Estelle, a small person who lives in Liverpool. I love all books apart from "The World According to Clarkson". Also very keen on comedy, cooking, octopods and other small people.