I love these old ads. Remember, keep fresh batteries in your house or you might poison your baby!
The tag line sounds almost like the reaction of an antivaccination loon to the polio vaccine.
More like this
Yesterday was a bit of a rough patch; so today there won't be the usual Orac magnum opus to which you've all become accustomed. Instead, maybe I'll do a briefer post with semi-random thoughts. Of course, even Orac's shorter posts are longer than the average blog post; so you're still getting your…
Being a new parent is exhausting. All of a sudden, you're out of the hospital and on your own with this amazing, tiny human, and you alone are responsible for her care. You're given reams of paperwork about feeding and sleeping, developmental milestones, red flags to look out for. You're inundated…
Last year I wrote about a cool paper, arguing for the creation of a new polio vaccine.
Briefly, polio is an RNA virus, thus has an error-prone RNA-RNA polymerase, thus acts like a quasispecies like HIV-1. Now, a live attenuated polio vaccine is the 'best' because you activate lots of branches of…
If there's one thing that is true of the antivaccine movement, it's that its members are rarely willing to admit that they are, in fact, antivaccine. Sure, there are uncommon exceptions who say it loud that they are antivaccine and proud and through their refreshing honesty and lack of self-…
Is Eveready even around anymore?
The "warning" that the ad presents isn't all that goofy.
It's just that no one uses a flashlight anymore, do they?
(That's maybe why Eveready is no longer extant.)
RR
What kind of idiot keeps toxic cleaning products in the frackin' medicine chest?
She didn't know how to change a fuse? That's taking frail femininity a little too far.
Warren,
It was probably for wound care not for cleaning the kitchen counters. However, the cough syrup used back then was probably an opiate (or whiskey) which could have caused respiratory suppression which on top of pertussis could have killed the kid.
Remarkable that they give her address in the ad. The times, they have changed.
Yes, Eveready still exists, they make the Energizer batteries, well promoted by the Energizer Bunny.
History of company: http://www.energizer.com/company/companyhistory.asp
Those old ads are mighty alarmist, tragedy around every corner. Probably why my grandmother worried so much.
Carbon batteries? How quaint. Now we have batteries that explode or catch fire. Talk about energy density.
You don't need bad light to dish out the wrong stuff. I once saw a kid whose mother was feeding him terfenadine (nondrowsy antihistamine) syrup for his asthma. Without result, and with potentially toxic (cardiac arrhythmia) side effects.
And I innocently said "What're you using telfast syrup for? I'd have the kid on a Bricanyl inhaler."
Whoashit... Terfenadine. Terbutaline. I'm sure she could see the look of dismay on my face as the mental gears clicked.
And I said "I think there's been a bit of a mistake made here."
Sometimes trade names are best! And yes, she was indeed feeding a poisonous dose to her 'baby'! (Fortunately without consequence.)
Collectors of old bottles know that poison bottles used to have bumps all over them so that if you grabbed one in the dark you'd know it from a medicine bottle.
http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/historyfiction/artifact.aspx?id=cbg
Yeah, it was the address that threw me most. These days you'd probably have a pitchfork bearing mob descend on this potential child killer's home.
Presumably, though, she thinks it's OK to teach creationism in public schools, so then Dembski would come along and blather on about how she's being persecuted for her beliefs.