A Century of Caring: The Health Sciences at the University of Iowa, 1850-1950: College of Pharmacy
Home Remedies
| When Iowa was a frontier state, settlers often made their own remedies to treat diseases like malaria, smallpox, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, pneumonia, and cholera. The knowledge of these cures came primarily from native healers and self-help books. Some ingredients came from garden, field, and forest plants. Others were purchased from a general store, druggist, or even a physician, when one could be found. |
53. Transplanting belladonna seedlings, c. 1940, courtesy of the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy |
| Kerosene, turpentine, and teas brewed from wild herbs, roots, and barks were popular treatments. Whiskey was also commonly used as medicine. |
54. Harvesting belladonna leaves, 1942, courtesy of the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy |
Quinine is another example of a popular home treatment. Malaria was common in Iowa in the mid-nineteenth century, with its peak occurrence around 1860. Many people used quinine to treat malarial symptoms because of its proven effectiveness. Physicians, however, did not readily embrace quinine as a treatment. They believed diseases resulted from vaguely-defined imbalances in the body rather than from specific entities like viruses, parasites, or bacteria. Because specific causes for disease were not a part of medical theory, neither were specific remedies. |
55. Picking belladonna leaves, c. 1942, courtesy of the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy |
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