I love reading old medicine books, they include stuff like wine pairings for medications

Same with old bird books, some of the originals have tasting notes for each of the birds they described.

Love me some red sparrow at the top o' the mornin'.

With a nice Cabernet

I found a "Backwoods Surgery and Medicine" book from 1910 at my grandparent's house. Half of the pain-related guidance involved cocaine in some form.

If people didn't enjoy it so much, it would probably be an impressively flexible medication.

If we ever legalized it it would probably replace or augment caffeine in just about everything overnight.

But aren’t there probably long term harmful consequences of cocaine even in small doses?

indiginous people have been consuming coca leaves with no bad effects for thousands of years. the dose makes the poison.

by comparison, if you snorted pure caffine powder. you'd literally die

Pure cocaine? Maybe? But many people do smaller amounts for years and we don’t know about it.

What I‘ve always wondered what drugs is it that burn people out in that recognizable way. And what ones are fairly recoverable.

My grandfather was given a Guinness daily when he was in the hospital recovering from colon surgery in the 1960s. It was thought the iron in it was helpful.

Now I'm just imaging seeing a hospital bill were they charged me $20 for a Guiness or something.

Depending on the bar and the city, a $20 Guinness is readily achievable today.

Hospitals can do better!

$270, negotiated down to $120 billed to insurance. You pay $15. Bill received in 6-9 months. Thank you for your business.

> You pay $15

Only if you complain and ask for a detailed list.

This reads like my Cigna explanation of benefits

Complimentary healthcare as it should be! Now I'm not sure if an Ibuprofen will be $70 or $500

In VA hospitals it was not uncommon to give a patient N beers per day to match their typical consumption to avoid them going into alcohol withdrawal during their stay.

I don't know what VA is but in the UK they will attempt to maintain any addictions so the withdrawal does not affect the patient.

For example, if you're a smoker I guess they give you nicotine patches or something.

VA is veterans' services in the US. I can't remember what the A stands for

Veterans Affairs

My mother was prescribed a glass of Guinness a day by her Ob/Gyn when she was pregnant with me in the 70s for the same reason.

Cigarettes were often prescribed for depression in the 60's I'm told. Nicotine is an anti depressant.

Have a source/pictures you can link to?

These days, I'd use Reddit for that.

> Regardless, medicine in the 1800s was pretty fast and loose.

There's a good series about the early days of modern medicine:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2937900/

Nitrous oxide was a recreational drug for 40 years before someone had the bright idea to use it during surgery.