![]() ![]() One of my favorite whiskey charlatans was a blender named Walter P. There were plenty of mountebanks, often the distillers themselves, who made claims that must have seemed astonishing even in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (There was apparently little examination of the contradiction that whiskey was being administered both as stimulant and depressant at the same time.)īoth whiskey and brandy were generally accepted medicine for colds and flu (or “the grippe,” as it was known then). Doctors also used it as a sedative to quiet the distraught or overexcited. The generally accepted rationale for whiskey’s claim to medicinal benefit was a belief that whiskey (and brandy) stimulated and strengthened circulatory function. I still remember my father’s astonished amusement with his tee-totaling mother taking her doctor-prescribed nightly tot to soothe her nerves after my grandfather died in the 1960s. Nonetheless, administering whiskey remained part of common medical practice through Prohibition and the first half of the twentieth century. Whiskey’s power to cure was medical tradition, and in a hidebound industry, tradition counts for a lot.Ĭhange was slow, but by the end of the nineteenth century whiskey’s cure-all reputation was being doubted in some circles, and its use increasingly deprecated. Like the straight honey of my youth, it’s an uplifting indulgence that always makes me feel happier, if not healthier.īut there was a time - not so very long ago - when whiskey was a generally accepted cure, a respected part of the medical doctor’s bag of remedies. And no, I don’t believe it’s really a cure for my colds, or my flu, or my sore back. I’m always happy to self-prescribe a little Scotch or bourbon when I’m under the weather. We stuck with the lemon and honey, and maybe some nice, cold Canada Dry ginger ale. I think my mom didn’t like fresh ginger - I don’t recall eating it in my youth, not once. Fresh ginger would add a bit of spicy heat, and has a long folk tradition of fighting colds and flu and of aiding the appetite. I knew people who added ginger to that mix. The lemon supplied vitamin C sweetened with honey, it made a very nice lemonade. (And since my mother was Canadian, maple syrup got involved, too. The honey was the best - when you’re five years old, drinking honey is an astonishing indulgence, sweet and soothing on irritated throats. I never thought to ask her if she really believed these nostrums cured anything, but they certainly had psychological benefits - at least they made us all feel like we were doing something. One was chicken soup the other was a mix of lemon and honey. ![]()
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