NP Re: propaganda [was Re: Vineland]

[thomasvieth]

"Long Day's Journey Into Night" is autobiographical on what you refer to; 
and just look at the bitterness conveyed there.
Thomas

On Mon, 5 May 1997, davemarc wrote:

> 19th century medications are a story in themselves.  I don't think they're
> simply a matter of marketing.  I know I've been harping on O'Neill
> recently, so I'll stay on the subject a little longer to point out that
> Eugene's mom became addicted to morphine after being treated with it
> following a painful birth experience in the late part of the century.  The
> doctor wasn't great, but I don't think he was a complete incompetent
> either; such usages were as common as they were regrettable.  Considering
> that the "safe" anesthesia pioneered c.1864 wasn't all that safe (and still
> isn't, in some ways), and that addictive substances like alcohol and
> codeine are still in cough medicines, the origins of "Mother's Little
> Helper" might have been less sinister, and more primitive and desperate,
> than suggested.  Now if we're gonna talk about modern-day cigarettes and
> heroin and cocaine....
> 
> davemarc
> ----------
> > From: MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu
> > 
> > Vaska,
> > All I know is an undocumented anecdote I picked up somewhere regarding an
> 
> > opium-laced cough syrup supposedly very popular among poor 19th c.
> immigrant 
> > populations suffering through the childhood TB epidemic (historians,
> gotta date on this?).  
> > It was called *Mother's Little Helper* and was marketed as the only
> *medicine* strong 
> > enough to suppress those tormenting coughing spells that must have driven
> many an 
> > indigent parent into madness as their infants coughed themselves to
> death.  
> > But what a marketing angle, eh?
> > 
> 
>