Various formerly very widely used over the counter medications were removed from the market several years ago. An example were throat lozenges called Tyrozets. They contained an antibiotic despite the fact that most sore throats are from viral infections rather than from bacterial infections and needless consumption of antibiotics carries the risk of building up resistance to them for future occasions when prescribed for a genuine bacteria-based condition.
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Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now
- Thread starter GordonT
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Merle Haggard
Established Member
Doses anyone else remember those scaring adverts for "Dr. J. Collis-Browne's Compound' on the Underground?
The poster was of Victorian appearance with a type face of that period, red lettering in different fonts and possibly with the outline hand with pointing finger. It made a number of bold claims about its ability to cure a very wide variety of illnesses including ones even now regarded as serious or probably terminal as well as more usual ones such as flatulence. It was rumoured to contain opium and morphine. When opened, the bottle's contents had very pungent fumes.
Some legislation forced its name to be changed from 'Compound' to 'Mixture', and the adverts were changed to reflect the, but retained the very dated style.
Edited to correct autocorrect
The poster was of Victorian appearance with a type face of that period, red lettering in different fonts and possibly with the outline hand with pointing finger. It made a number of bold claims about its ability to cure a very wide variety of illnesses including ones even now regarded as serious or probably terminal as well as more usual ones such as flatulence. It was rumoured to contain opium and morphine. When opened, the bottle's contents had very pungent fumes.
Some legislation forced its name to be changed from 'Compound' to 'Mixture', and the adverts were changed to reflect the, but retained the very dated style.
Edited to correct autocorrect
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I dont understand - why?
Did you have no cards or something?
I suppose you could pay via paypoint (or whatever its called) if you only had cash.
Morphine 1mg per 5ml dose and peppermint oil 0.0015ml.
(Martindale Extra Pharmacopoeia, 1989)
My late father was an information scientist, so inherited some unusual books.
Related - Victory V lozenges, with chloroform and ether
They're both rather volatile for putting in a lozenge that be on a shop shelf for any length of time; speaking a someone who nearly knocked himself out at Uni handling dichloromethane (similar to chloroform) and setting his right hand on fire with diethyl ether. (I was quite unharmed)
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
Wasn't it Collis-Browne's?
Interestingly, the UK is one of few European countries which allows the sale of medicines in supermarkets or otherwise not from a pharmacy. I rarely take any medicine and my paracetamol "expires" before I get through the pack, but my partner does use mild painkillers for a couple of conditions and I'm reminded of how liberal the UK is in this respect whenever we visit a country like Croatia or Germany and she wants to pick up ibuprofen or paracetamol and you basically have to go to a pharmacy for it. In Croatia this evening came with a series of about half a dozen questions from the pharmacist.
Merle Haggard
Established Member
Correct - I wish I could switch off auto-correct.
I can only say about France. It is true that you need to go to a pharmacy, but there are many pharmacies, even some small villages have one. They will sell stronger painkillers OTC than in the UK. They also sell a wider range of products, which may be how they make the business pay.