Comments on: Old over the counter products with now prohibited substances http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/146 Feel Smart Again Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:55:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 By: Mary http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/146/comment-page-1#comment-129 Mary Thu, 08 Jun 2006 21:32:08 +0000 http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/?p=146#comment-129 It's amazing how people used to think cocaine was a cure-all. I just sent Mangesh some new text for "Med School in a Box" about Sigmund Freud -- he regularly prescribed the white stuff to his friends and was a devotee himself. He wrote to his fiancee: "I will kiss you quite red and feed you till you are plump. And if you are forward you shall see who is the stronger, a little girl who doesn't eat enough or a big strong man with cocaine in his body." The great surgeon William Halstead was also a fan of Bolivian marching dust and thought it would make an excellent anesthetic. Unfortunately, he didn't cope with it as well as Freud. He experimented on himself, got addicted, and ruined his career. It’s amazing how people used to think cocaine was a cure-all. I just sent Mangesh some new text for “Med School in a Box” about Sigmund Freud — he regularly prescribed the white stuff to his friends and was a devotee himself. He wrote to his fiancee: “I will kiss you quite red and feed you till you are plump. And if you are forward you shall see who is the stronger, a little girl who doesn’t eat enough or a big strong man with cocaine in his body.”

The great surgeon William Halstead was also a fan of Bolivian marching dust and thought it would make an excellent anesthetic. Unfortunately, he didn’t cope with it as well as Freud. He experimented on himself, got addicted, and ruined his career.

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