bismuth is an active ingredient in Pepto Bismol, a popular stomach medication in America, so the joke being this would counter the effects of this cup. :D
I knew about antimony being used as a laxative, but I never knew it was also an emetic. Fun fact: we can track Lewis and Clark’s path west because they used those perpetual pills and left antimony contamination along their way. Their physician was really keen on them.
@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252 See, Mercury was for syphilis. You injected it up your peehole because heavy metals have antibacterial properties. Doesn’t work once it becomes systemic but at least your urinary tract gets clean.
@@maddieb.4282if it is indeed a " fact"..... What's the chance of happenstance of finding where a dude took a dump many hundreds of years ago in what was once vast wilderness....? Plus....you'd have to find the " perpetual pill" that they didn't collect. as the slight contaminate from it would long be gone. Couldn't imagine doing such to yourself on a long trek, where you're probably already half dehydrated from constant diarrhea !
Ah yes. But will they be brave or stupid enough to revive the perpetual pill? So far, my research does not yield any specific you tube video featuring the perpetual pill! The pill (contraception) has dominated the forum. Anyone find anything else associated with this? It's my pet project to find these odd, usually historical, things that are not yet on the Internet. It's a scavenger hunt that only grows more illusive over time!
This is the kind of history I love to learn about. I never knew people poisoned themselves to throw up and feel better again. It makes sense 😂 but it doesn’t at the same time lol.
I saw a documentary about a drug detox and rehabilitation center run by buhdast monks up in the mountains. No maintainance drugs. They have you purge for a total of so many days. Some more, some less depending. The success rate is over 90%. Don't know if its the trauma of it or the endorphins and dopamines that are raised after you throw up that makes them successful. Your body does naturally give you a feel good chemical to make you feel better after the bad feeling it gives you to rid whatever it needs gone from your system.
They say you're young if there's still something to experience for the first time. Here, I got to hear about antimony and its use for the first time! Thank you!
The fact that these look indistinguishable from pewter makes the evil part of me wonder if they were occasionally used by accident, or deliberately in pranks. 'Here, sir, a draught of wine to warm you up!' 'Gracious thanks! Why, it tastes quite queer, did you perhaps *HHHRRRUEAAAAAGH!'*
It was probably scraped on the inside because people using them maybe scratched the inside with each use to make the wine puke inducing mixture inside more potent? Why else are their scratches? Spoons wouldn’t make deep marks like that, and in that up and down fashion either.
Very fascinating! It seems the trend of “health gurus” and their manipulative marketing has been going on for a centuries. The perpetual pills remind me of all these modern detox teas and juice cleanses people try. Thank you for sharing! I love learning about the daily lives and practices of people from history not just the big events.
That's a bit of a false equivalence because cures like these represented the most common medical theories at the time (humor theory dates back to Ancient Rome), and were thus intended as legitimate treatments, not deliberate quackery.
They have. Ever heard the term “snake oil” “snake oil salesman”? It was a popular thing. People would mix..whatever the fuck they wanted, and sell it as miracle cures. There’s a scene in Sweeney Tod where there’s a salesman selling miracle hair growth elixir, people rubbing it on their scalps. It was just piss. The scary part is this wasn’t at all unreal, and has happened throughout history.
Oh in the book, A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe from 1722 tells all about charlatans who posted advertisements all over town about their many qualifications for plague treatment and how they had even worked for all of these famous people, when they never had and even worse, they wound up causing more harm than good. There's much more detail about it in the book, but it's nothing new. Lol
@@hautakleightontam771tell me you eat up every pill a doctor gives you without telling me. Are y'all actually equating detox teas and juice cleanses to medical quackery? 2 forms of medicine that have been used for millineia? The quackery comes from anybody claiming cure-all or selling cires that cause more problems than they help...idk like most modern medicine
My father was a rather old soul and "induce vomiting" was the method taught to me from a very young age whenever I had even the mildest of upset stomach. I'm sure I would have used a "perpetual pill" if one had been floating around our family.
My mother, when I was about 6 or 7, would give us a drink of warm water with a hefty amount of sodium bicarbinate. It did a very good job of inducing vomiting, at least in me. Syrup of ipecac was an alternative kept in our medicine closet. Fortunately later she dealt with sick stomachs with hot Vernors. Much better.
I was really enchanted by that little straw box and how perfectly it has been preserved. I also wondered about the artisans who were casting and chasing those cups for Mr. Evans - if they died from exposure to the toxins.
This presentation is a perfect example of why the V&A is my very favorite museum in the whole world and why it is a must-visit whenever I am in Britain. Thank you. ☺️
@@deanevangelista6359or the 711 version of the Dunkin Coolata. I have no idea if they still make it, last time I had it was '99, but I remember it always without fail produced diarrhea with back-pressure.
"It is believed that the toxicity of antimony and of arsenic is due to the fact that in combination with enzymes (the organic catalysts of the cell) they interfere with cellular metabolism." -Brittanica It's also apparently very reactive when it comes into contact with acids (I'm going to assume this also includes stomach acid? Probably?)
@@TaylorToman Not stomach acid, but more specifically nucleotides and amino acids responsible for gene expression, replication and the construction of proteins responsible for the cell's biological functions. Basically it can bind to DNA, and various other molecules in the cell which screws up how they function because your cells were not meant to use antimony to do useful work.
@erinbeaud4556 Okay? It's free but it took me like a solid 10 minutes to scroll around and find how antimony reacts with oxygen, acids, DNA, and a website explaining how it affects enzymes in the body. Not to mention that unless you've recently taken a couple science classes, a lot of these have to be translated into layman's terms. This is an antimony video. Don't be rude.
Very interesting. I love the boxes as well as the craftsmanship of the preparer of the mold for the casting. As a woodturner, I really like to see these shapes. ❤
Very interesting. Its really shocking what doctors perscribed as medicine in the past, like this or mercury, arsenic, or later even radium. I wonder what doctors in 300 years might say about our todays medicine.
They would say the past is all about trial and error but all these lessons about medicine give us knowledge as humans that we learned to improve it over time but I think pills, capsules and injections made medicine more portable compared to drinking out of a cup, bowl or eating herbal remedies
@@Mark_nobody3 They’ll probably talk about how our rampant abuse of antibiotics led to the development of superbacteria that they’re currently looking to cure lmao
"here ye are my little grand child, granny will cure your tummy aches... Just take this and give it back afterward." Child - " thank you granny, the pill worked great" " thats good to hear, just give it back for future tummy aches" Child- "umm yeah , about that part, I may have flushed it" " You WHAT!!!! That pill passed through the rectum of 5 generations of this family! "
My great grandmother told her daughter of a poop stone for constipation and upset stomach could this be similar not understanding metal from stone? Truthfully we never believed her, but now@@vamuseum
wow, how bizarre. i cannot understand why or how this was just considered “normal”. i can’t imagine just doing that to myself on a random wednesday morning. that being said, i have emetophobia, so duh, but it just sounds awful lol. still very interesting though i will admit!
It would have been nice if you explained the more severe side effects this caused besides vomiting and diarrhea and a better scientific explanation of antimony on the body long term use etc
My meds don't always make me nauseous and dizzy, but of course they would while watching a video about a vomit inducing cup. Think I'll lay down for a bit.
@@maddieb.4282Not necessarily. It shows it's been used within living memory which is very recently when compared to the age of the item this video is discussing.
The 19th and early 20th c. are full of beliefs about the benefits of 'heroic medicine'-style treatments such as laxatives. If you read early 20th. Fashion magazines you'll find tons of ads for purgatives and claims of their benefits
They were exactly like us-or rather we are exactly like them. We have more technology but we’re exactly the same as them in terms of our temperament our ambitions and our willingness to believe in the power of ridiculous things.
This is an amazing am scary part of history. the Mutter Museum is a very interesting place as is your Museum..! I really enjoyed this ! I love to learn something new everyday!!!
Im pretty sure back then a lithotomy was performed by forcing a long, solid metal chisel up the peehole all the way into the bladder, where the stones would be smashed apart by hitting the chisel with a hammer.
Yep and years in the future there'll be videos of the barbaric medical surgeries done today. I've got an unknown muscle condition and I have had plenty of weird medical experiments done on me. I got to go to Duke University this year to see if they can help identify whatever it is. I died in August of last year my heart swelled and caused a heart attack. Doctors brought me back after 6 minutes. My family doctor said medical records should I died twice. I had open heart surgery and put on life support for a couple of months. The doctors and the nurses thought I was unconscious the whole time but I wasn't I just couldn't move or talk I never could get their attention. I had no family or friends that were with me I was 400 mi away from home why they transferred me that far from home I don't know.
Well that’s horrifying. Normally if you get transferred that far away, you need services not in the local area, or all the local hospitals are overwhelmed.
We send our condolences, and are thankful to have you as a living specimen for further study. I hope one day your condition is discovered and named appropriately, and maybe even cured.
Dear Me! V&A - the first container is clearly North American Aboriginal. The lid is decorated with dyed porcupine quills, the box may be cedar or Birch bark (flexible) and the side ``straw`` looks more like cedar or spruce roots (also flexible when heated in water). Amazing that you have not imagined this provenance since British rule was `'in the colonies``i.e. Canada.
I thought it looked like Annishinabe (Ojibwa) quill work as well. I've seen several moden and historical examples, and it looks like a birch bark box decorated with quills and plant materials.
So.... the V&A expert who has the box in front of him and has had the chance to examine it closely, at leisure, and get opinions from other experts, if necessary, says the box is straw. You looked at a brief video and immediately know that the V&A experts are so ignorant that they can't tell straw from porcupine quills....... OK. Maybe the V&A should employ you. Unless you are implying that this is more about culture theft than knowledge of historical artefacts.
What is that weird movement of the inner ring of the box at [10:10] ? His hands, sleeves, and other objects didn't "twitch" so it wasn't a cut in the video. That's really strange...
Sometimes boxes contain an inner layer much like a smaller box within them. You will see this in modern skincare where the outer jar has a smaller inner jar. Many reasons for this including that the skincare ingredients might react easily to temperature or the substance of the outer packaging. So an inner packaging/jar made of a different material is used. Sometimes it us simply because the outer material is leather that has been tooled, etched and gilded or straw like in this case. The inner box is plain and made of softer material to hold the cup snug without scratching the ornamental box.
The part that tickles me most is drinking water was so rare that people were drinking more booze to rehydrate which probably worked wonders for balancing the body 😹😹😹
The idea that people mostly only drank alcoholic beverages instead of water is a myth. Sure, acquiring water was harder back then and there was risk of contamination if you were downstream of another village or city, but for the most part, those who lived near water or had village wells would obviously draw from those. They also collected rainwater for use, and had city planners devising new ways to bring fresh water to their citizens. Beer and ale were more nutritious, true, but they weren't a replacement for water. They were an alternative. Water simply wasn't interesting enough for most people to brag about it in the scripture, and those who could write books usually belonged to the clergy, who were also renown for making booze. Even today, people will express their love for booze and coffee but not talk a whole lot about water, simply because it's boring and mundane. I reckon 500 years from now people are probably going to look back at our living habits and historical evidence and assume we probably drank more coke and coffee than actual water. It's the same with medieval people. Misconceptions.
my dad once told me a story of a time he got really drunk and accidentally ate a bunch of half-cooked chicken wings. probably could've used one of these things lmao. get rid of it *before* the salmonella hits
Wonderful item, and great background material. Isn't there another antimonial cup in the National Maritime Museum? It''s many years since I visited but the antimony cup stuck in my mind (unless I'm misremembering).
Reminds me of the SNL skit with Steve Martin as the Barber. Drunkard: I was at the festival of the vernal equinox, and I guess I had a little too much mead.. and I darted out in front of an oxcart. It all happened so fast. They couldn’t stop in time. Theodoric of York: Well, you’ll a lot better after a good bleeding. Drunkard: But I’m bleeding already! Theodoric of York: Say, whos the barber here?
the reason it would be dangerous for him to hold is that antimony can be dissolved in small quantities by the oils in your skin. he's wearing gloves, therefore no skin oils, therefore no contamination.
