I have not posted here in a while and need to get back to it. Meanwhile, here is a piece of family medical ephemera.
In 1936 my aunt Mabel had pneumonia. She was born in 1930. (Mabel is the daughter of Earl William Spicer and Leota VanScoter, my paternal grandparents). Here you see the prescription written by Dr. Lord. This was the family doctor, and he made house calls. Note the limited office hours in the upper left corner. In case you can’t read the writing, to treat it: juice of oranges and a lemon, cream of tarter, camphorated oil on chest (this is like Mentholatum), laxative each night.
I did some googling about cream of tarter and found some pages from antique health books and also some modern web sites where cream of tarter is said to help detoxify the lungs, help a lung infection, etc.
And the laxative? Maybe my aunt just happened to be constipated along with pneumonia? However, it could be the idea was to “flush” the body systems and get rid of the infection? Just a guess.
VanScoter and Spicer Genealogy and Memorabilia 