About the dangers of masturbation, radioactive mineral water and heroin from dandruff

uncle_docToday we have an issue that is not quite ordinary – with a historical bias.

Moreover, we will deviate a hundred years ago.

And the idea of time travel was suggested by the reference book of Morozova O.A. "How to help a sick person", which has already bypassed the entire Runet – and instantly spread through LJ, and went through all entertainment sites. _o_tets_ was the first to tell about this medical masterpiece (the link is just the same, "burning" post). What are only a couple of quotes worth:

It became really scary for our narcologists, suddenly one of their patients decides to "decode" according to the method of Rodion Raskolnikov.

* Quickly removing the glasses and hiding them in the table* And what am I? I'm nothing… I see well, my nerves are strong, I don't complain about the rest either…

You can, of course, endlessly make fun of the author of the handbook, feeling so smart and well-read that there is nowhere else. However, I had an amazing teacher in the history of medicine, so I will try to apply the knowledge gained at the lectures now. The fact is that we were recommended to find and read this book while studying. But in what capacity – I will explain.

So. The link presents a book published in 1991. However, when searching, it turns out that this is not the first reissue. And the original source (or rather the 2nd edition) is found in 1958, in distant California. The author is Olga Alexandrovna Morozova, former chairman of the Semipalatinsk Community of Sisters of Mercy of the Red Cross.

And now everything is falling into place. This handbook is unique in that it is a reflection of medical and hygienic knowledge in society ... a century ago. It was in this capacity that his teacher of the history of medicine recommended him to us.

Why is it age-old? Have you noticed the concept of "community of sisters of mercy"? Exactly. These religious organizations appeared in Russia during the Crimean War and existed until the revolution of 1917, after which they were abolished as an ideologically alien element. About the history of this phenomenon, which appeared thanks to the brilliant Russian military surgeon Nikolai Pirogov, it is necessary to write a separate large article – so many interesting things have happened over the 150 years of the existence of communities. They began to revive only after 1991, and the first new sisters of mercy appeared in the First City Hospital named after Pirogov.

Pay attention to the construction of phrases, to the words that the editors have tried to modernize, but they still have a noticeable whiff of the past. Well, the fact that the medical knowledge of the beginning of the XX century was, to put it mildly, not very – so they still leave much to be desired on average in the population.

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By the way, at the beginning of the century there were their own "biologically active additives", for example (the following four drawings are from the collection of LJ-user sir):

I have the impression that the copywriters who write advertising texts for the current dietary supplements, banally steal them from old pre-revolutionary files. The level of argumentation, as well as the structure of the ad, has not changed a bit in a hundred years. Interestingly, at the beginning of the century there was a law on advertising? And where did they get "photographic cards" if there was no Internet?

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There were their own nanotechnologies at the beginning of the XX century. And if in our time nanotechnological water with wonderful properties confirmed by "clinical studies" was offered against all diseases, then in the 1920s radioactivity discovered at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries was considered curative:

Please note that in this advertisement we are also talking about clinical trials. And the list of diseases is also quite diverse. Although the effectiveness of such water for internal use in gout and catarrh (inflammation) of the bladder is very doubtful.

By the way, natural radioactive mineral water really exists in nature. Only it does not contain radium, but the radioactive gas radon. Moreover, the greatest therapeutic effect is provided by thermal weak-radon waters (35-60 ° C). They exist, for example, on the territory of the Czech Republic, and in Russia it is found in the sources of the Caucasian Mineral Waters, the Altai Territory, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Chita region. That's just their main use is not inside, but in the form of baths.

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No, there was definitely no advertising law at the beginning of the century. And there was no WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control either. If some tobacco factory had tried to produce such an unpretentious advertisement in our time, it would not have paid off, and consumer societies would have been pecked:

The logic is iron. If children smoke, then let them smoke "good" cigarettes. And if they drink, then only high–quality vodka. And it's best for them to inject only high-quality heroin. Don't wean me anyway.

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The knowledge about the heroine, by the way, at the beginning of the XX century was completely different. It was freely sold in pharmacies as an antidepressant and as a hair remedy, for example:

And morphine in the same pharmacies was offered as a cough remedy, including in the form of syrup for children.

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It is likely that in another hundred years descendants will also make fun of our dietary supplements, bioresonance devices, water with negative redox potential and other "achievements" of advanced medical thought.

Maybe we should try to give less reason to laugh?

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru17.04.2008