COUGH SYRUP
1 cup honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 tsp. alum
1/4 to 1/2 cup whiskey
Combine honey, cinnamon, vinegar, and alum and bring to a boil. Stir, remove from heat, and allow to cool. Stir in whiskey, and pour into clean bottle. Shake well before using. [The recipe does not give a recommended dose.]
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| 37-1/2% alcohol content in a 1920s patent medicine |
The alcohol content in that homemade cough syrup reminded me of a diagram (see above) in one of my old textbooks. (Healthy Living Book Two: Principles of Personal and Community Hygiene, by Dr. Charles-Edward Amory Winslow. Published in New York by the Charles E. Merrill Company in 1924.)
In more recent times (1940s-1950s), the patent medicine Hadacol was popular throughout the Southern U.S. and beyond. Hadacol was the concoction of Louisiana State Senator Dudley LeBlanc. It was especially popular in many "dry" counties of the South because of its alcohol content. Besides the alcohol, it contained a fairly long list of vitamins and minerals, and it had a strong, medicinal taste. It's widely reported that some drugstores sold it by the shotglass.
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| Flikr photo by Logan Molen. Creative Commons license: Some Rights Reserved. |
Related:
Dudley LaBlanc and The Hadacol Boogie
La Valse de Hedacol
The Hadacol Bounce
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