Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Digestive

Roger Angell's book mentions ads for Ipana and for Sal Hepatica, but seems vague about what Sal Hepatica may have been intended to do. The name means "liver salt," more or less; and it was the foundation of success for Bristol-Myers, apparently. Brioschi was a rival in a blue glass jar. Its granules looked a lot like starch curds. Some version of this is still on the market; I'm not sure about Sal Hepatica. In our house we had neither. If ginger cookies or baking soda or Milk of Magnesia couldn't take care of it, the person suffered until the episode was over.

1 Comments:

At 7:47 PM, February 06, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said...

In the late '40s I vividly recall my Grandmother using Sal Hepatica on a daily basis as a laxative. It was prescribed by the family doctor and I'm not sure whether it was because she was bed-ridden with arthritis or any other particular reason. I DO recall that it worked .......... as proven by the smell from the business with the bedpan. Grandmother died at age 65.

 

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