The Topic on Christmas Advertisments prompted me to post this rather tattered copy of a Boer War.Advert for Doctor Williams PINK PILLS for pale people (Found in an attic) ( The AD not the pale people) Hope it comes out readable.
They are still sold in South Africa as a general tonic. Personally, I would prefer Irn Bru as a cure all. With a fry up,it is still the favourite hangover cure in Scotland.
Very interesting reading. I note the quaint phrase of harassing the enemy and the need to commander their food and medicine. Not sure we would be printing that in newspaper headlines today. Brian
Well, in the end that was the only way to "beat" the Boers... They were a self-supporting insurgency...little or no outside contact after the war began. The Boers organised themselves into "kommandos" for operations....and when necessary, like American Civil War guerillas in Missouri etc., like the James' Brothers and such - they could melt back into the Boer rural community to re-arm, get more supplies and food, medicines, have their wounded nursed at home... In most successful insurgencies there has to be another "dimension" so to speak - somewhere where guerillas can do all of the above. In Afghanistan (whoever the enemy was over the years!) it was over the border in Pakistan; in WWII Crete it was be taken off by boat to the Delta; behind the lines in Burma, Chindits could be evacuated by air if sick; but in the Boer War the Boer rural communities provided that for their menfolk. Hence the British development of the (later well mis-used) "concentration camp" tactic - if you can't take the guerillas out of the community....take the community out of the equation! Round up the Boer civilians into camps...and anything else that moved in the terrain was Boer Kommando! And they had noone to feed them, noone to resupply them, noone to nurse them... One of the oddities of the period - and it led to MANY deaths in the camps - was that the Boers held stubbornly to their own folk medicines and remedies for various local diseases...the vast majority of which did NOT work! Round up their medicines (as well as their food) and the Boers wouldn't use any "British" medicines they came across or captured. The British were hitting at their ability to remain "in the field" on two levels this way... And finally - telling the Boers it was going to be happening was part of the whole propaganda war! They could turn in their arms and surrender now....or suffer later. It was part of the psywar; TELL them how they were going to suffer... Many years later - the British waged almost the SAME campaign in Malaya during the Emergency; as the Communist insurrection became widespread....they rounded up the rural Malayan civilians and put them in camps and perimtered villages....and thus everything OUTSIDE them was by definition guerilla! Then the British rocketed and bombed and shot the sh1t out of the jungle. it's part of the reason why so many WWII-era RAF aircraft didn't survive until today - not just their early use in Korea, their years of use in Malaya until their use-by dates had definitely expired!
good day redtop.sm.today.01:09 pm.re:pink pills.your article is very clear,and interesting.what did they cure???thank you for posting.regards bernard85. :tongue: they make you feel good
"Folk medicine,""natural healing"...why is all that nonsense undergoing a revival today? I know people that spend thousands on it and then wonder why they don't feel better. And I'd bet that there was at least a tincture of an opiate or a pinch of alcohol in those little Pink Pills.
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display.aspx?id=5579 .http://thequackdoctor.com/index.php/dr-williams-pink-pills-for-pale-people/
Hmm, today ferrous sulphate is quite commonly taken in conjunction with patent cancer cures like artemisinin...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisinin
