In some parts of China it is considered bad luck, and bad table manners, to flip over a whole fish to get to the other side Have you ever ordered whole fish at a Chinese restaurant? This is the traditional Chinese way of serving fish, with head, bone, tail and all. Nothing unusual there, but […]
A Completely Black Chicken, Inside And Out?
The Ayam Cemani of Indonesia, Black Skin, Organs, and Even Bones The Ayam Cemani of Indonesia is black. I would say the Ayam Cemani chicken, but this would be redundant, as ayam is the Indonesian word for chicken. A black chicken is not so unusual. My grandmother had black chickens, from time to time, on her chicken […]
Before There Was Bayer Aspirin There Was Bayer Heroin
Although Bayer, or Freidr. Bayer & Co. of Elberfeld, Germany, had already created its first aspirin product by 1894, the company decided to hold off on moving forward with it in favor of another product: heroin. The company introduced their heroin product in the Autumn of 1898. It was a hydrochloric salt of heroin, soluble […]
Blood Poison: So Easy To Cure!
Blood poison was often used during the 1800’s and into the early 1900’s as a general wastebasket diagnosis to explain many common non-serious and serious conditions. Although blood poison, in those days, could mean the same thing as an infection of the blood introduced through a wound, it was just as often a way of […]
What’s the Difference Between a Tisane and a Decoction?
I wrote a little review article of Nighty Night tea the other day and it made me think about this question of tisane. Many people wonder about the difference between a tisane and a tea. Well, really, its a question of semantics. What we call an herbal tea does not contain any tea leaves, so […]
Radithor Certified Radioactive Water – The All Too Real Thing
During the last part of the 17th century, a curious thing happened. Folks began to distrust medicine, which was becoming more and more complex and hard to understand while embracing cures that were based on new and emerging science. This period saw the rise of radioactive remedies based on radioactive isotopes like radium. There were Radione […]