So I don’t know about you, but the state of the world right now has me turning to the bottle a bit more than usual. In the spirit of that, I thought we could delve into the entertaining and frankly quite terrifying world of historical medicine and see a) if we can figure out how the human race survived itself and b) how one would treat a nasty hangover back in The Day.
Spoiler: I have no idea how the human race survived itself. I just don’t.
Also: some of these remedies are truly frightening, so this column may not be suitable for reading while you are eating, or if you have a vivid imagination and/or a sensitive gag reflex.
Also also: I think that might be our first “you might barf” trigger warning.
I found that there tend to be more remedies for intoxication than just for hangovers, so I included a few of those as well. A lot seem to employ some amount of aversion therapy.
If you listen to Sawbones, a podcast on medical history (the hosts are a husband and wife- she’s a doctor, he’s a comedian), you know that there’s a dude by name of Pliny the Elder, a Roman naturalist, writer, natural philosopher, who wrote a book called “Natural Histories” which includes a lot of medical remedies.
You’ll note that none of those things include “a doctor.”
He had a couple of suggestions for intoxication, though:
“A surmullet stifled in wine; the fish called “rubellio;” or a couple of eels similarly treated; or a grapefish, left to putrefy in wine, all of them, produce an aversion to wine in those who drink thereof.”
Or
“The eggs of an owlet, administered to drunkards three days in wine, are productive of a distaste for that liquor. A sheep’s lights roasted, eaten before drinking, act as a preventive of inebriety. The ashes of a swallow’s beak, bruised with myrrh and sprinkled in the wine, act as a preservative against intoxication: Horus, king of Assyria, was the first to discover this.”
Okay, well. First, yeah, putrefied fish would totally result in an aversion to wine. So, good job there. Apparently, the sheep’s lights are the lungs, and I suspect that eating protein, any protein, would help sop up the booze? As usual, Pliny is wrong but in a really entertaining way that almost circles around to being sort of right.
As for the swallow’s beak… I got nothing. You can probably get a swallow’s beak out in the local park, though, if you want to give it a try. (Please don’t kill a bird. Please.)
Okay, so we move on to Markham’s The English Housewife, and the 1615 English suggestion:
“If you would not be drunk, take the powder of betony and colesworts mixed together and eat it every morning fasting, as much as will lie upon a sixpence, and it will preserve a man from drunkenness.”
…sure? Probably not? I hesitate to suggest that perhaps drinking less might be an easier option?
I’m just saying, Markham.
I have, for Research Purposes, Domestic Medicine: or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicine by William Buchan, a facsimile of a 1784 book. Buchan was a Scottish doctor from Edinburgh. He has a few things to say about intoxication, including that getting drunk isn’t a great remedy for a cold, and that intoxication can be fatal.
He does suggest water with toast as a good life choice after a debauch, or barley water (so he’s not a terrible doctor) and relates a case study of a kid who was basically in a coma after drinking like, 12 glasses of brandy. Mostly they kept him warm and tried to keep him hydrated (great) and they bled him (not great) and he lived! So… not a terrible doctor.
I also have a book of American folk medicine I acquired in Colonial Williamsburg sometime in the early 90s, which collects recipes and remedies from many different sources.
1854, The American Family Receipt Book:
“To remove the effect produced by an excess of wine, etc, drink a wineglassful of olive oil. It will prevent the harmful fumes from rising. It will have the same effect if taken before an intended debauch.”
I suspect this will make something rise. This sounds like an excellent way to make yourself throw up. It will not really help as a preventative.
From an 1828 manuscript:
“A cold infusion of boneset has speedily restored the tone of the stomach after drunkenness.”
Boneset is used for fevers and cold, and apparently has shown some anti-inflammatory effects in studies. I think the cool water part has as much to do with any success as the boneset does.
Finally, in 1934, the bartender at the Ritz-Carlton mixed Coca-Cola with milk as a hangover cure. I’m not certain that milk would be great on an upset tummy, but Coke would probably be okay.
Look, we know that what you need when you have a hangover is find yourself some water, some electrolytes, and ideally something super greasy (I like the steak and egg bagels from McDonalds for that purpose).
Next month: putting this historical cooking thing I do into practice in the more or less real world!
What’s the strangest or most repellant hangover remedy you’ve encountered? There are more than a few mentioned vaguely, especially in historical romances – any that you found particularly memorable?
Thanks for the interesting post! Amethyst was believed to prevent drunkenness in ancient Greece (I think its name means something like “not drunk”); I don’t think it had to be ingested.
When I lived in England for grad school, my sister and I discovered some kind of vitamin supplement that you take with alcohol to prevent hangovers (I saw something similar at the health food store here last week). That stuff legit worked. I guess it helps your liver process the alcohol because you did not get drunk! It’s actually a very strange feeling and kind of a “hmmm, why am I drinking?” experience since the alcohol doesn’t affect you the same way. They usually come in sachets with individual doses if anyone wants to give it a try.
Oh, and the idea of the hair of the dog I think stems from the fact that a hangover is actually your body going through withdrawal symptoms and drinking more helps to delay that.
You’d need to be careful about which of the plants known as boneset you ate, comfrey is one and it can cause liver damage, which wouldn’t help with a hangover!
The hangover cure I have read of which most horrified me was from Jeeeves of Jeeves and Wooster fame, raw egg, Worcestershire sauce and red pepper (think cayenne, ie chlli powder). I don’t know if it was ever a real ‘cure’ or just made up by Wodehouse.
I giggled all the way through this! Absolutely loved it.
You don’t mention the traditional hangover cure of Alka-Seltzer. “Plot plot fizz fizz oh what a relief it is” was an advertising jingle everyone knew. It’s main ingredient is bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to neutralize stomach acid. Citric acid combines with it for fizz and aspirin for the headache. It’s fizzyness is more palatable than a tall glass of plain water and was supposed to soothe the stomach. (After all burping is good for everything isn’t it?)
Some “traditional cures” like the sauna and black coffee can actually make a hangover worse–dehydrating instead of replacing fluid. Rehydrating is what you want!
RE the 1854 receipt book: When my dad was in WWII he served some of his deployment in Italy. Because he was first-generation Italian-American he spoke the language fluently, and in his position as Bos’ns Mate he was the captain’s official chauffeur. So any time the captain went to a meeting on shore, he would have my dad dress in civvies and go out to all the local watering holes and buy drinks for everybody in order to get them all to spill any information they had on enemy movements. Before going out to do this, he would eat bread dipped in olive oil; the bread absorbs most of the alcohol and the oil coats your stomach lining so that less of the alcohol gets absorbed. This legit works, I have tried it, and it usually worked for Dad except for this one time when he ran into a guy with an iron constitution and neither one could drink the other under the table. I don’t know if he ever got any intel out of the guy but he did get so drunk he forgot to pick up the captain and just went back to the ship on his own around 5AM.
Worst hangover cure? I had an aunt who would mix a raw egg into tomato juice or V8. Shudder.
Milk thistle!!! You can get it in the vitamin/supplements aisle of your pharmacy. Take 2 before you start drinking and 2 before you stop. If your drinking was really bad the night before, you might need some in the morning, but probably not. Trust me, milk thistle works with the liver.