Good question. I did a bit of research and found this:
"Many a good woman, who would start at the very mention of strong waters, cannot conceive there can be any harm in a cordial. And as the fair sex are more particularly subject to a depression of spirits, it is no wonder that they should convert their apothecaries’ shops into rich cordial warehouses, and take drams by way of physic; as the common people make gin serve for meat, drink, and clothes. The ladies perhaps may not be aware, that every time they have recourse to their Hartshorn or Lavender Drops, to drive away the vapours, they in effect take a dram ; and they may be assured, that their Colic, Surfeit, and plague Waters, are to be ranked among spirituous liquors, as well as the common stuff at the gin-shop. The college of Physicians, in their last review of the London Dispensatory, for this very reason expelled the Strong Water, generally known by the soothing name of Hysteric Water; because it was a lure to the female sex to dram it by authority, and to get tipsy secundum artem.
If any of my fair readers have at all given into this pernicious practice of dram-drinking, I must intreat them to leave it off betimes, before it has taken such hold of them, as they can never shake off. For the desire of drams steals upon them, and grows to be habitual, by imperceptible degrees : as those who are accustomed to take opiates, are obliged to encrease the dose gradually, and at last cannot sleep without it." ~ The British Essayists By Alexander Chalmers · 1807
You just reminded me that I wanted to thank you for the extra research here on Hysteric Water. Good grief, given the amount of noxious cures men were pouring into women for "the Vapours" ranging from Laudanum to this boozy Hysteric Water, I'm surprised that all those sexually repressed Europeans and Americans didn't totally depopulate by the end of 1800s.
Your question got me interested. Long familiar with the connection between hysteria and uterus. "In ancient Greece specifically, it was believed that a uterus could migrate around the female body, placing pressure on other organs and causing any number of ill effects. This “roaming uteri” theory, supported by works from the philosopher Plato and the physician Aeataeus, was called ‘hysterical suffocation’" https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history-quackery/history-hysteria
Looking under the Intemperance drink column, I wonder what "Hysteric Water" is and where can I get some?
Good question. I did a bit of research and found this:
"Many a good woman, who would start at the very mention of strong waters, cannot conceive there can be any harm in a cordial. And as the fair sex are more particularly subject to a depression of spirits, it is no wonder that they should convert their apothecaries’ shops into rich cordial warehouses, and take drams by way of physic; as the common people make gin serve for meat, drink, and clothes. The ladies perhaps may not be aware, that every time they have recourse to their Hartshorn or Lavender Drops, to drive away the vapours, they in effect take a dram ; and they may be assured, that their Colic, Surfeit, and plague Waters, are to be ranked among spirituous liquors, as well as the common stuff at the gin-shop. The college of Physicians, in their last review of the London Dispensatory, for this very reason expelled the Strong Water, generally known by the soothing name of Hysteric Water; because it was a lure to the female sex to dram it by authority, and to get tipsy secundum artem.
If any of my fair readers have at all given into this pernicious practice of dram-drinking, I must intreat them to leave it off betimes, before it has taken such hold of them, as they can never shake off. For the desire of drams steals upon them, and grows to be habitual, by imperceptible degrees : as those who are accustomed to take opiates, are obliged to encrease the dose gradually, and at last cannot sleep without it." ~ The British Essayists By Alexander Chalmers · 1807
You just reminded me that I wanted to thank you for the extra research here on Hysteric Water. Good grief, given the amount of noxious cures men were pouring into women for "the Vapours" ranging from Laudanum to this boozy Hysteric Water, I'm surprised that all those sexually repressed Europeans and Americans didn't totally depopulate by the end of 1800s.
Your question got me interested. Long familiar with the connection between hysteria and uterus. "In ancient Greece specifically, it was believed that a uterus could migrate around the female body, placing pressure on other organs and causing any number of ill effects. This “roaming uteri” theory, supported by works from the philosopher Plato and the physician Aeataeus, was called ‘hysterical suffocation’" https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history-quackery/history-hysteria
I don't take whisky in the morning, but I have been hitting the Toddy and Crank pretty hard. No wonder I'm so peevish.
Meanwhile, I'm feeling better about "strong beer."