Turns out those Civil War doctors were on to something.
This vintage TIME magazine article presents the case for Whiskey to be used again as a painkiller. The world is much too politically correct for such an article to appear now, but in 1941, when the war effort was in full swing, everything was in short supply, and Europe had a plentiful amount of alcohol, this article makes a lot of sense.
Dr. Harold Wolff of Cornell presents a study where two ounces of 90 proof whiskey will raise the “threshold” of pain for two hours. When taken with aspirin, almost any pain can be dulled for four hours. Although doctors stopped recommending Whiskey because it can be abused and is habit forming, Wolff argues that it’s less difficult to deal with than a Morphine habit.
Assuming you are not an alcoholic, and if you ever have a toothache, fever, or some minor malady, alcohol WILL significantly easy your pain.
Buffalo Trace Distillery 1882, America’s Oldest Continuously operating distillery, enabled by the US Government to produce Medicinal Whiskey through Prohibition
