> THESE PILLS WERE the pride and joy of Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the Founding Fathers and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Later, a descendent of Dr Rush would go down in infamy for a foolhardy escapade to the Titanic in a carbon-fiber submersible called Titan.
> Dr. Rush’s style of “heroic medicine” had caused his star to fall quite a bit by this time — especially after the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic of 1793, when his patients died at a noticeably higher rate than untreated sufferers.
Seems familiar...
flanked-evergl · 15m ago
Getting the vaccine prevented people from getting the virus. It was 99% effective and 100% safe without any side effects.
kylecazar · 5h ago
"600 giant pills that the men called 'thunder-clappers,'"
I love little reminders that people haven't changed that much over the centuries
suzzer99 · 5h ago
Hunter-gatherer tribes probably had some natural laxative they called some version of "thunder-clapper" and giggled as they said it.
Barbing · 3h ago
I bet.
Source: the amount of time it takes to scroll through the Wikipedia page for “it’s all Greek to me“ (variations common across dozens of languages)
Esperanto's translation being "it's all Volapük to me" is exactly the kind of linguistic shade I was hoping to find in that article.
jvm___ · 5h ago
I just got back from backwoods camping, each site has a wooden chest/thunderbox/toilet out in the open woods near the site. I'm not sure if the thunder is the heavy wooden lid closing or the noises that come from it. Some are out of sight of the campsite but ours was only 75ft away, fortunately the lid blocked your view if it was in use.
cheema33 · 4h ago
I could be wrong, but I don't think that is the thunder the "thunder clappers" was named after.
chasil · 4h ago
'The main active ingredient in “thunder-clappers” was a mercury salt.'
This doesn't seem particularly safe or good for the environment.
Travelling thousands of miles overland, in constant fear of ambush from a fearsome plains tribe war party, alternating between intense constipation and explosive diarrhea - bet they didn't put all that on the brochure when they were signing folks up to paddle the canoes.
kcplate · 2h ago
No, but didn’t need to. Pretty sure frontier people knew exactly what life in the wild would entail.
I wonder if they did eat some plants, but just didn’t get enough fiber? I eat no fiber (strict carnivore) but have no problem with regular bowel movements.
shermantanktop · 2h ago
Iirc from “Undaunted Courage,” a daily diet consisted of 10 pounds of bear meat, for men who were burning thousands of extra calories a day.
hereme888 · 5h ago
This article just shows up on the front page of HN as I drink senna tea... perfect.
Later, a descendent of Dr Rush would go down in infamy for a foolhardy escapade to the Titanic in a carbon-fiber submersible called Titan.
> Dr. Rush’s style of “heroic medicine” had caused his star to fall quite a bit by this time — especially after the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic of 1793, when his patients died at a noticeably higher rate than untreated sufferers.
Seems familiar...
I love little reminders that people haven't changed that much over the centuries
Source: the amount of time it takes to scroll through the Wikipedia page for “it’s all Greek to me“ (variations common across dozens of languages)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_to_me
This doesn't seem particularly safe or good for the environment.
I doubt if the product is sold now.
Edit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calomel