French Remedy for Consumption

Raw beefsteak, powdered charcoal, sugar and rye whisky, steeped overnight and spooned down before meals.

From: The Dixie Cook-Book
Published: 1883
Yikes Scale: Yikes

Exactly as printed, 1883

FRENCH REMEDY FOR CONSUMPTION. - One-half pound finely cut up fresh beefsteak; one drachm pulverized charcoal; four ounces pulverized sugar; four ounces rye whisky; one pint boiling water. Mix all together, let it stand in a cool place over night, and give from one to two tea-spoons liquid and meat before each meal. The dose should be small at first, until the stomach becomes used to it, and then gradually increased. This remedy has the merit of simplicity.

The Dixie Cook-Book, 1883. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

The beef is raw and stays raw. Boiling water is poured over it, then the mixture stands overnight in a cool place — which is neither cooking nor refrigeration, and the instruction is to swallow the meat as well as the liquid.

Consumption is tuberculosis. It is treated with antibiotics over months, and nothing in this glass touches it.

Notes from the 21st century

Charcoal is the one active ingredient. Activated charcoal genuinely adsorbs some toxins, which is why it is still used in overdose. It does nothing for a lung infection, and it will bind whatever nutrition is present.
TB was the great killer. Roughly one death in seven in the nineteenth century. The volume of remedies in these books is a measure of the desperation.
One labelled receipt in a long chapter. It sits between a mustard plaster and a cough mixture, in a remedies section running to a hundred and nineteen paragraphs.

Also in this book

Children's diarrhea cordial — A pint of brandy and an ounce of paregoric, dosed until the discharge shows the colour of the medicine.
Opossum, roasted whole — Scald with lye, scrape, and roast whole with the head and tail left on.
Peach Jelly — Crack a third of the kernels into the jar with the fruit, for flavour.

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