Medicine in Literature

 Ghastly medicine in Literature!

(Above) Mary Poppins

“Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down…!” the rosy cheeked Mary Poppins cheerfully sang in the Disney adapted version of the original book series by P.L Travers. In the time before every medicine was mostly available in a pristine and tasteless pill form, we had to endure the morbid and cringe worthy act of swallowing down gloopy and bitter liquid remedies. Myself (and possibly a great many others) would have shared my not very fond memories of having to pinch my nose and clamp my mouth in protest as mum shoved the luminous banana coloured putrid smelling gloop in my squealing face. Medicine in literature does not have a particularly positive reputation either, whether it’s marvelled at by children in all its disgusting glory or written in a very practical recipe form to force feed to children in outdated recipe books, I will take a brief look at Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, The Tale of Peter Rabbit and George’s Marvellous Medicine to see the negative portrayal (if any at all) of medicines in these books.

 

The Three Good Bunnies Eat Their Supper

Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit, a series of whimsical little picture books following the story of a mischievous bunny, printed in 1902 is meant for a much younger audience. It follows the naughty and disobedient young Peter rabbit being chased about the garden of Mr McGregor. He escapes and returns home to his mother who puts him to bed after dosing him with camomile tea. Below is a quote of the end of the book:

"I am sorry to say that Peter was not very well during the evening. His mother put him to bed, and made some camomile tea; and she gave a dose of it to Peter! One teaspoonful to be taken at bed-time. But Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper."

For me, the ending almost seems like a cautionary tale for young readers, with the prospect of missing dinner and replacing it with unpleasant medicine acting as a deterrent for naughty children planning mischief in the day. The medicine rather seems like a form of punishment for naughty Peter rabbit. 

George’s Marvellous Medicine is a playful story written by well-known and hugely popular children’s author Roald Dahl. It tells the story of a young boy who concocts a medicine to give to his “grumptious” grandmother to “cure her of her nastiness.” The reader can observe a somewhat reversal of roles in the two children’s books.  In The Tale of peter Rabbit we see Peter’s mother (who is the elder) giving the medicine to Peter (who is the child,)  whereas in George’s Marvellous Medicine, we see a role reversal; though the medicine is given for the same reason (as a punishment), it is the child giving the medicine to the elder (his grandmother)  this time, so for the child reader this works as a sort of gratification; children can delight in the idea that horrible medicine is not something that’s not only for naughty children, it can be for adults too. Traditionally it is the mother, or adults authority to give the medicine, The very idea of a child making medicine is exciting, as children are traditionally warned against going anywhere near the medicine cupboard Roald Dahl gives a child the authority to do so this time and so young readers can feel the excitement of child rebelliousness.

 I knew it would be simply impossible to even attempt to recreate George's "brutal and bewitching," "spicy and staggering," "fierce and frenzied" concoction containing ingredients such as his father's shaving foam, anti-freeze, denture cleaner, curry powder, nit cream, and shoe polish to name but a few! I instead decided to follow one of Mrs Beeton's medicine recipes written in the morbidly titled chapter: 'The Doctor.' Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management was first published in 1859 a guide to running all aspects of a British Victorian household. Her writing style is very practical and no- nonsense. I found that as with many of her recipes, Beeton never really describes the taste of any of her food and lacks any description regarding the final result or what to expect from of any of the recipes. This, paired with somewhat old-fashioned ingredient measurements meant that I somewhat improvised a little on the recipe. (for example, due to religious reasons I omitted the use of alcohol in the recipe, and had to check how much a “quart” was.) Below, is the recipe from her book:

 


(Above) To Cure A Cold by Mrs. Beeton

(Above) All of the ingredients

Getting hold of “stick liquorice” proved to be a great deal trickier than I had originally anticipated. After a search through at least two supermarkets, greengrocers and a newsagents proved fruitless I went to the only person I thought would know: mum. I discovered that the liquorice root is also native to South Asia and is known as “mulethi” in the urdu language and was in fact easy to get hold of from Asian foodstores. My mum has always been a believer in natural remedies and I grew up drinking medicines made from ingredients in the food cupboard. The final result I was left with after making Mrs Beeton’s cold remedy was greatly similar both in taste and appearance to the herbal medicinal drink I grew up with, called kaava: made with boiling green tea leaves, cardamom pods, fennel seeds and cinnamon sticks.





The two drinks compared: Mrs B's remedy (R) Kaava (L)

I was expecting it to be a revolting concoction but was greatly surprised by how sweet and not very awful tasting it was. It did after all contain sweet liquorice, raisins and sugar. I did not enjoy the distinctly aniseed-y taste of the liquorice and would certainly not drink it out of enjoyment. Would I instead prefer to settle with George’s supposedly marvellous medicine containing (among many other ‘ingredients’): horse medicine, extra hot chilli sauce and shaving foam? No I will settle comfortably with Mrs Beeton’s cold remedy thank you very much!

All in all I shall give this cold remedy a gory rating of: 1 out of 5 

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Comments:

What can I say? It was surprisingly soothing! Nice one Mrs B!

Click the links below to see how I got on with making Mrs B's cold remedy!

 1 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-krygLE6G6DTmFDTmptQXFYMm8&authuser=0

 2 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-krygLE6G6DVThWMVFCNjdHc0E&authuser=0

All in all I learned that medicine is not always necessary, as we see in these books, medicine serves more as a punishment and a deterrent from bad behaviour rather than a necessity;  given mostly to children by an adult. Essentially, medicine is largely portrayed in a negative light, in taste, as well as appearance. Though sometimes illustrated as being 'good for you' it isn't necessarily perceived as being 'tasty' and is often associated with negative behaviours and punishment. Mrs Beeton’s recipe  for a ‘cold remedy’ was just that, a recipe. The only similarity I could draw was that Mrs Beeton instructs mothers to dose the child with the remedy before bed, just as Peter Rabbit’s mother did. Kaava anyone?