Stupid stuff we used to do…

"That arsenic really worked like a charm!"

…Before we knew better, that is. Thanks to research, we as a society are generally smarter about things than we used to be. In this post, a quick look at how cigarettes, cocaine, heroin, tapeworms, and arsenic weren’t always all that bad.

(Note: There are quite a few images within)

1. Cigarettes: Cigarettes almost didn’t make this list because they’re still widely used and totally legal, but I thought I’d feature some of these vintage ads, the likes of which we’ll probably never see again. And not to pick on Lucky Strike cigarettes more than any other cigarette brand, but their campaigns really stood out:

Sure, women still smoke cigarettes as a means of staying thin, but with the endless list of negative health effects of smoking, cigarette makers can never again encourage a woman to smoke to “keep a slender figure” or threaten her with an ominous double-chinned shadow.

And how can I pass on the irony of another Lucky Strike gem, seen above left, where the selling point is how many doctors are fans of their cancer sticks? Although, the 1949 Camel cigarette ad on the right would argue it’s their cigarettes that doctors prefer to light up. Don’t get me wrong, physicians definitely used to smoke alongside everyone, so these ads are only amusing/horrifying now because we know so much more about what smoking does for our health. ["It's toasted" refers to toasted tobacco leaves, which supposedly made for a better tasting smoke.] And one more ad to make you cringe:

So it's okay for children *over* 6...?

2. Cocaine: Another story many people have heard of is the one behind the name of Coca-Cola. Coca leaves provided cocaine and the kola nut provided caffeine — a winning formula at the time.

Though some people may feel addicted to this soda at times, it’s probably just the caffeine, or the tastiness — today, Coca-Cola only uses a cocaine-free extract of the cola leaf for flavor. Because no one wants even small amounts of something in their soda if it’s known to cause heart attack, seizure, stroke, or sudden death. You probably wouldn’t want it in your toothache drops either:

Believe it or not, a physician in 1909 seemed to think it relieved the pain and shrank the tumors of 14 of his cancer patients, and published his observations in British Medical Journal:

“…The only agent I had ever used having any effect on the growth of abnormal epithelial tissue was cocaine…I determined to try the effect of the internal administration of cocaine.” (Emphasis mine)

This article is old enough that anyone can access it for free, and it was written in the days when research read more like a diary, so I recommend checking it out: The Treatment of Cancer With Cocaine.

3. Heroin: Another drug that’s reviled at present, but Bayer used to think it made a fine cough suppressant:

But I’m being hard on Bayer — they didn’t know that their Heroin was quickly metabolized by the body into morphine, the drug for which Heroin was supposed to be a non-addictive substitute. People tend to stay far from heroin now, because nearly a quarter of its users become dependent.

4. Tapeworms: Today, people don’t look favorably upon tapeworm infections, and with good reason — who wants diarrhea, malnutrition, seizures, or any of the other awful side effects of a tapeworm living in his digestive tract? But I guess in the late 1800s, welcoming a tapeworm into your intestines could have been the start of a new weight-loss plan (and this was before the obesity epidemic!):

5. Arsenic: Lastly, an element now practically synonymous with poison, arsenic was previously used as a treatment for a wide range of conditions:

Instance of the Good Effects of Arsenic in Chorea (chorea is an involuntary movement disorder), A Case of Chorea Successfully Treated by Arsenic, On the Use of Arsenic in the Cure of Chorea, On the Use of Arsenic as a Blood and Cardiac Tonic, and The Successful Use of Arsenic in Certain Kinds of Gastric Pain. (Again, this research is so old that you can access it for free.)

All of this was done even though it’s been known since the time of the Roman Empire that arsenic can kill. Although arsenic can still be found in occasional medical treatments today, such as arsenic trioxide, a compound approved by the FDA in 2000 to treat a resistant form of leukemia (the arsenic is toxic to the cancer cells), we’ve stopped putting it in our facial soaps (thank you, research):

I realize this post was mostly eye candy, but what I hope I’ve done is to show how research shapes society and has the power to switch the common perception of something from “cure” to “poison.” Finally, I want everyone to ask themselves: What do you think we use now, that 50 or 100 years from now will be laughable “stupid stuff” to future society? Energy drinks? Air fresheners? Leave a comment with your best guesses!

Gilchrist RM (1909). THE TREATMENT OF CANCER WITH COCAINE. British medical journal, 1 (2509), 274-5 PMID: 20764279