Mod note: watch the snark levels.
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ââŚbecause taking enough of it will make this night your last.â
Dosis Sola Facit Venenum.
A lot of people will get a bit of a burning sensation if theyâre drinking something really, really sweet â the pure fructose/sugar burns the throat. Sounds like youâre unusually sensitive to it.
To be clear, that means that honey may be a throat irritant for you. It doesnât mean that honey, as a rule, is an irritant. For most people, for centuries, itâs been considered a soother.
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Neither honey nor alcohol are âintestine destroyersâ for the vast majority of people. Seems like MarjaE is extraordinarily sensitive to them. I personally get indigestion and heartburn if I have too much acidic tomato sauce, garlic, and cheese â but Iâd never say they are âintestine destroyersâ.
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Much like how water does not normally burn the throat, but to someone suffering from various diseases (such as rabies, historically known as âhydrophobiaâ), the mere act of drinking is a monumental task.
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This would be a bit concerning because of the morphine dose, if âgrâ is gram and not grain. 1/8 of a gram would be 125mg. The LD50 for humans for morphine sulfate is 125-250mg. So, assuming a larger than 1oz bottle, you could be screwed if someone drank a full ounce or more of this stuff.
http://www.drugbank.ca/drugs/DB00295 (Morphine reference info)
If âgrâ is grain, then thereâs about 8.1mg morphine/oz of this stuff, which means to hit the low end of the LD50, youâd have to drink a bit over 15oz of this stuff. Thatâs a fair volume of liquid, and a bit of google-fu shows bottles that look considerably smaller than 15oz (though the one pictured for the article is â15 dosesâ).
and
(obviously an older variety)
Iâm betting that if you downed a whole bottle, youâd probably be feeling pretty happy from the morphine, and possibly developing a bit of habit as well (but hey, repeat customers!)
A lot of these âpatent curesâ were essentially narcotics in disguise, so good churchgoing folks could get their drink on, or get their opiate fix in a more socially respectable fashion, and as such were either high in alcohol content (which this one isnât) or had a decent amount of a narcotic in it.
Google âMariani wineâ (cocaine laced wine endorsed by a pope!) or Dr. McMunnâs elixir of opium or Lloyd manufacturing Cocaine tooth drops for fun.
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âŚbut it did cure a touch of the vapors.
I dunno, it is âskillfully combined with other ingredientsâ! 
Have you heard of Godfreyâs Cordial, also called Motherâs Friend, which was basically opium to keep your baby quite. LOL.
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Hi Jardine - I just got back to my computer. I recommend you take a look at Boboâs photos. Old-timey medicine bottles frequently were tiny. Glass was just as precious as the contents. Note the wrapper for the âKohler One Nightâ (which I hadnât yet seen when I made my 12-dose guesstimate). It states â15 dosesâ, so the matched bottle (which says âEach Ounce Containsâ) is most likely a one-ounce bottle.
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Delirium tremens is not the same as the shakes, although the latter is usually a component of the former. Shakes can happen after a weekend bender; delirium tremens is a result of withdrawal from long-term heavy abuse and involves hallucinations, seizures, and sometimes death. Itâs excellent cause for an ambulance ride.
You do not have âDTsâ just because your handwriting is wobbly the day after a bachelor party.
I quote myself:
I didnât say it was a hangover, or try to imply short term use. I wasnât implying minimal medicinal concern. DTâs a.k.a. âthe shakesâ are a side effect of withdrawal from long term alcohol abuse.
What Iâm saying is that âthe shakesâ are a common symptom of a bad hangover as well as delirium tremens. Too many people observe that theyâve got âthe DTsâ because their hands are trembling slightly the morning after. This exaggerates their own condition and minimizes the seriousness of the other; itâs like saying you have cholera every time Taco Bell gives you the shits.
Look, youâre sidetracking this thread, and Iâm done.
No one is questioning the truthfulness of the label? It could have been anything in there. The label is part of the marketing. The industry was not known for its wholesomeness, I am pretty sure.
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Up until the late 80s at least, there was a chemists in my home town sold a product known as âpolicemanâs bottleâ, which tasted like boiled Victory Vs and rubbing alcohol and contained an entertaining quantity of morphine. And you got money off if you brought your bottle back in for a refill.
Heeeeee! Brings back a memory! I was given something similar when I was around 4 for probably a cold. Pretty sure it was tea, honey and whiskey of some sort. It took a couple of decades after than before I could stand any one of them 
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And of course since laudanum worked so well, Bayer figured this newer stuff would work even better!
Bayer heroin
Yep, same Bayer we still know and love. Probably a part of I.G. Farben at the time of the ad who were the lovely folks who supplied the Zyklon B for letâs say, other purposes.
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And hereâs some 411 on baby doping with laudanum.
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I seem to recall Heroin was invented as a way to stop people being addicted to morphine. They talked about this on a Planet Money episode about Suboxone and why there is so much caution about getting this new drug out on the streets. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/23/240242221/episode-391-the-anti-addiction-pill-thats-big-business-for-drug-dealers
Is there a transcript?
Iâm sorry honey irritates your throat. I found it soothing, and the alcohol, I suspect, was there to help me sleep. My fatherâs point, though, seemed to be that the homemade cough syrup wasnât any worse than the commercial varieties, which also contained alcoholâand, for that matter, sugar. It may not have been any worse, but I donât know if it was any better either.
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