#1912 Vicks and Other Kicks

#1912

Vicks and Other Kicks

NORTH CAROLINA MINUTE

Pharmacist Lunsford Richardson

Invents Vicks VapoRub   

In 1894, a Greensboro pharmacist invented a cold remedy that would become world-famous.

Lunsford Richardson moved to Greensboro in 1890, after working in Selma, North Carolina, as a pharmacist for ten years. His three children caught colds "almost immediately," and Richardson treated then with poultices and a vapor lamp. But he wanted a better remedy, and began experimenting in his drug store, the drug store once owned by O'Henry's father.

Using the "miracle ingredient from Japan called menthol," Richardson developed a "vaporizing salve that combined the best features of both the poultice treatment and the head-clearing vaporizer." He used his brother-in-law's name for the product, and called it Vick's Croup and Pneumonia Salve…known today as Vick's VapoRub.

Addition Dr. Morris:

We live in a crazy mixed up world; it is good to hold onto a few things that are eternal, such as our faith and our knowledge that God left everything on this earth needed for our treatment.  There is one word no longer found in any medical literature, it is a four letter word called "cure".  With all the scientific knowledge, foundations, hospitals, and "do-gooder" groups, with all the medical and other healthcare schools, it seems that the only remedy in the doctor's bag, some exotic-high priced-much advertised chemical elixir. 

Early Americans were raised in houses where fresh air was not a problem; air just blew through via cracks everywhere.  We didn't worry about nebulizers, air purifiers my mother's best and most effective treatment for our colds-bronchial congestion-coughing, Vick's VapoRub.  I keep a jar of this wonderful mixture right next to my bed all the time and use it to keep my breathing difficulties under control.  I still remember those poultices which my mother would put on my chest.  You see, back then, you didn't have insurance or welfare card to trot to the doctor for any and everything.  You learned to take care of things yourself.  Vick's VapoRub and cough drops are like aspirin...MIRACLE DRUGS.

While I am on this topic, something I have dealt with for many years, the intolerance of many genus homosapiens, to milk and milk products.  Lactose intolerance is real; I believe the fundamental reason for the earaches in many babies.  This writer understood lactose intolerance years ago and stopped using dairy products.  An old family doctor told me, that milk was good only for calves, that man was the only species that utilizes milk from another species.  But, no one likes ice cream more than me and I went back to eating ice cream, kept some in my fridge all the time.  Then, I became so congested that I could hardly live with myself, nothing seemed to help.  But, as soon as I quit ice cream and milk, the situation cleared up completely.  I am throwing this out free of charge because you or someone you know may have such a problem. 

As I told many patients, you know your body better than anyone else, you must learn to take care of yourself, the few minutes any trained person spends with you, no matter how good the doctor, about all he knows is what he sees and what you tell him during that short period of time.  How long has it been since your doctor asked you about your eating habits?  Most of the time, the cure is in the kitchen not at the drugstore.  Of course, with the "outlandish" prices for most prescriptions, you can understand why doctors and pharmacists want you kept ignorant.  Money is not made from simple cures.