From the Prairie Traveler ©1859
A little blue mass, quinine, opium, and some cathartic medicine, put up in doses for adults, will suffice for the medicine-chest.
And that was all they took on their trip west. Now if you're like me you probably don't know what "blue mass" is, so I looked it up. Here's the link from Wikipedia Basically it was a remedy used for a variety of complaints in the form of blue or gray pill or syrup.
Now brace yourself here are the list of ingredients that make up this medicine
Mercury
Licorice
Althaea
glycerol
rose honey
As we all know today Mercury is toxic and it's very likely some of our forefathers were poisoned. There is evidence that Abe Lincoln used to take blue mass and it altered his temper. Once he accepted the office of president he stopped taking the pills.
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