Blue mass pill

[CavRTO]

Not really sure where this belongs but.....
President Lincoln and not just his wife suffered from depression or what was called melancholy back then. The prescribed medication was what was called the "blue mass pill". The blue mass pill's primary ingredient was mercury. Given how it seems quite a number of important people, in particular, general officers at the time were said to suffer from melancholy you would have to wonder what effect the prolonged use of mercury laden medication had on so many. Certainly, some of the effects were disorientation, clouded decision making, as well other maladies.

 

[John Winn]

I've often wondered how many suffered terrible side effects of that 'drug.' I read some years ago where archeologists were able to document the location of a number of the camp sites of Lewis and Clark by using detectors to search for mercury in the soil (Lewis and Clark having taken a large quantity of such pills on the journey). Just another example of the horror of much of what passed as "medical care" in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

 

[Story]

From 10 September 2009

To mark the 200th anniversary year of the birth of Abraham Lincoln Britain's Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) wants to analyse the mercury-based medicine thought by some to have been responsible for the President's notorious bouts of rage in the decade before the American civil war.
But the society first needs to track down some of the legendary Victorian "Blue Mass" concoction and to that end is offering a reward of £200 for information that results in some of it being pinpointed by the end of November.

During the 1850s Lincoln, by nature a friendly and balanced person, was known for flying into towering rages which sometimes took on a physically violent manifestation, on one occasion grasping and shaking a politician until his "teeth chattered".
At the outset of the war he determined to abandon the blue mass pills because, he said, they "made him cross".

The main ingredient of Blue Mass was mercury, now know to be toxic but it also contained glycerol, rose honey, and Althea.

Search for Blue Mass medicine that made Abraham Lincoln lose his cool

To mark the 200th anniversary year of the birth of Abraham Lincoln Britain's Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) wants to analyse the mercury-based medicine thought by some to have been responsible for the President's notorious bouts of rage in the decade before the American civil war.

www.rsc.org

 

[CavRTO]

From 10 September 2009

To mark the 200th anniversary year of the birth of Abraham Lincoln Britain's Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) wants to analyse the mercury-based medicine thought by some to have been responsible for the President's notorious bouts of rage in the decade before the American civil war.
But the society first needs to track down some of the legendary Victorian "Blue Mass" concoction and to that end is offering a reward of £200 for information that results in some of it being pinpointed by the end of November.

During the 1850s Lincoln, by nature a friendly and balanced person, was known for flying into towering rages which sometimes took on a physically violent manifestation, on one occasion grasping and shaking a politician until his "teeth chattered".
At the outset of the war he determined to abandon the blue mass pills because, he said, they "made him cross".

The main ingredient of Blue Mass was mercury, now know to be toxic but it also contained glycerol, rose honey, and Althea.

Search for Blue Mass medicine that made Abraham Lincoln lose his cool

To mark the 200th anniversary year of the birth of Abraham Lincoln Britain's Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) wants to analyse the mercury-based medicine thought by some to have been responsible for the President's notorious bouts of rage in the decade before the American civil war.

www.rsc.org

 

[CavRTO]

It was also used to treat syphilis.

 

[damYankee]

Dr. Benjamín Rush's Bilious Pills AKA Thunder Clappers is what was in use and they had been around since 1800.

 

[Elliot Crumblemuffin]

Dr. Benjamín Rush's Bilious Pills AKA Thunder Clappers is what was in use and they had been around since 1800.

View attachment 463302

Yes, please

 

[damYankee]

Yes, please

A little side note, Dr. Benjamín Rush's Thunderclappers were ubiquitous and used for every ailment known to man until someone figured out they were poisoning everyone.
Purging was thought to be beneficial and these little blue devils would take care of business. Lewis and Clarke were supplied with thousands of them and dispensed them with great regularity to the member of the Corps of Discovery, so much so they historians are still able to trace their encampments by finding traces of mercury contamination present in the soil.
Many believe that Meriweather Lewis's demise was caused by mercury poisoning

 

[Story]

Dr. Benjamín Rush's Bilious Pills AKA Thunder Clappers is what was in use and they had been around since 1800.

View attachment 463302

Or just stop for lunch at Arby's.

 

[Elliot Crumblemuffin]

Or just stop for lunch at Arby's.

Yes, please

 

[Tanglewood]

Or just stop for lunch at Arby's.

Yeah, but those Jamoca shakes are so good...

 

[damYankee]

Or just stop for lunch at Arby's.

You mean Taco Bell

 

[Story]

You mean Taco Bell

To each man's gastrointestinal system, his own choice of explosive results.

 

[jackt62]

Anyone who has studied the CW to any extent will certainly be aware that many persons, from those in the ranks to the highest military officers and civilian officials suffered from various digestive and neurological ailments. Remedies of the time, such as "blue mass" and "calomel" were often mercury based and may have done more harm than good. I wonder if more attention should be devoted to how these ailments affected the performance of senior officers and officials and its effect on policy, strategy, and tactics.

 

[damYankee]

Anyone who has studied the CW to any extent will certainly be aware that many persons, from those in the ranks to the highest military officers and civilian officials suffered from various digestive and neurological ailments. Remedies of the time, such as "blue mass" and "calomel" were often mercury based and may have done more harm than good. I wonder if more attention should be devoted to how these ailments affected the performance of senior officers and officials and its effect on policy, strategy, and tactics.

There is a reason armies going back as far ever issued beer or some form of distilled of liquor, a ration of beer or rum or wine or mead was safer than drinking water your enemy or your own soldiers fouled.
George Washington ordered his troops be given one quarte of beer per day, when supplies ran low he wasn't happy. Even the pilgrims on the Mayflower; An entry in the diary of a Mayflower passenger explains the unplanned landing at Plymouth Rock: "We could not now take time for further search… our victuals being much spent, especially our beer…"

 

[Bentonville]

It was also used to treat syphilis.

I'm a tattoo artist and a historian of the art. The old red, "mercury red", was cinnebar, and wasn't named for the planet. Up until 1954 the US Navy medical brass considered it to "cure syphilis". They didn't realize it had mercury in it. It just drove the bugs under cover. That all.

The old saying, and it's a joke today, is, "Theres something in the ink."

Also Martin "Old Martin" Hildebrant was the first artist to start a professional tattoo practice in the US. He owned three, moving from his shop in Boston to the Bowery, NYC, and having a shop on Oak St. as well.

He was a German and joined up, I'd love to know the regiment. He went between lines tattooing both armies. People wanted names, home towns as well as images.

Old Martin has a fierce case of PTSD and started heavy drinking and after multiple arrests for public drunkenness, fighting and a slew of other erratic acts his daughter and son I'm law had him committed to Hart's Island Santorium. He died there in 1873.

I'll give free ink to snyone who can find that regiment.

My choice in design of course.

 

[CavRTO]

I'm a tattoo artist and a historian of the art. The old red, "mercury red", was cinnebar, and wasn't named for the planet. Up until 1954 the US Navy medical brass considered it to "cure syphilis". They didn't realize it had mercury in it. It just drove the bugs under cover. That all.

The old saying, and it's a joke today, is, "Theres something in the ink."

Also Martin "Old Martin" Hildebrant was the first artist to start a professional tattoo practice in the US. He owned three, moving from his shop in Boston to the Bowery, NYC, and having a shop on Oak St. as well.

He was a German and joined up, I'd love to know the regiment. He went between lines tattooing both armies. People wanted names, home towns as well as images.

Old Martin has a fierce case of PTSD and started heavy drinking and after multiple arrests for public drunkenness, fighting and a slew of other erratic acts his daughter and son I'm law had him committed to Hart's Island Santorium. He died there in 1873.

I'll give free ink to snyone who can find that regiment.

My choice in design of course.

Had dinner with one of my sons last night who's also a tattoo artist . Has a shop just outside of Boston.

 

[Tennessee Union Gal]

In those days it was a race to see what killed you first, the disease or the cure.

 

[bamaman]

To each man's gastrointestinal system, his own choice of explosive results.

In n Out Burger! My favorite

 

[Story]

I had an opportunity to visit the Aloe Vera factory in Aruba recently.

Our guide explained that the juice from cut Aloe, if ingested, causes explosive results.