SMBC Comics Forum

It wasn't just alcohol which could cure everything. Cocaine and caffeine also got into medicines back then. People even fed the sick spoonfuls of crude oil, which is actually pretty toxic. (I heard about this during the tour of Drake's Well, then years later saw this being portrayed in the movie "The Ballad of Little Joe.")

Now go and look at the ingredients in a lot of medicines at your local drugstore today. Lots of over the counter medicines have caffeine in them. The only reason it's there, is because it makes you feel different. Lots of "medicine" throughout human history was just placebos enhanced by side effects making you feel different.

Sawbones podcast is dedicated to misguided medical history. Here's their alcohol episode - http://www.maximumfun.org/sawbones/sawbones-alcohol

Funnily enough, ethanol is useful as oral medication in only two life threatening conditions, one exclusively in alcoholics (acute withdrawal), the other seen in alcoholics more than other people (toxic alcohol ingestion).