Medical Advances in Weirdness DC Evening Star July 2, 1862 Who Needs Accutane? Shut Up And Take Your Tar Pills Tar in Alabama--1858   CURIOUS SPRING IN ALABAMA—The Talladega Watchtower, in an interesting review of Professor Tuomey’s last report on the Geology of Alabama, states near the line between Hancock and Lawrence, there is a spring of liquid bitumen or mineral tar, which is said to be somewhat remarkable for its curative properties and is said to be known as a cure for scrofula, cancerous sores, rheumatism, and other diseases in which alternatives are required. The water runs out from a seam or crevice in the limestone and the tar bitumen floats on the surface, a black foam very cohesive and insoluble in water. The tar can be collected in patients visiting the springs frequently take it in the form of pills. Really, Doctor, It's Just a Bump On My Head Feel the Bumps On Your Head Know Thyself! September 1859, Harper’s Magazine KNOW THYSELF-THE PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL f...

  SWILL MILK KILLS    May 1858, Frank Leslie's Weekly Illustrated   depicted a nearly dead cow hoisted up off the manure covered floor in a New York City whiskey distillery "dairy farm" for one last milking.      In May 1858, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly Newspaper, Harper Weekly’s major competitor, ran an early example of investigative reporting.   Many whiskey distilleries had a side business –dairy farming.   Well, not farming exactly unless you consider examples such as Johnson’s Whiskey Distillery on West 16 th St with three long barns housing 2,000 cows in narrow stalls fed nothing but Johnson’s used up barley and corn mash.   Heated scalding hot, it was sluiced into the troughs in front of the captive cows.        T he stalls were not cleaned, so the cows had to lie down in their own manure and urine. When they stood up twice a day to be milked, the udders were not cleaned and neither were the milkers’...