Apocalyptic Apothecary

by Ron Foster

  “Well, it’s not a people-size door that I need to get into, but it’s pretty darn interesting anyway.” Zack said moving aside so that she could see the odd iron strapped armoire sized cabinet better.

  “I just found us some keys and we got us an old gun that’s pretty damn interesting! Wow, we got us one hell of a nice black powder pistol here in pretty much mint condition except for the dust! Come on and look what I found and try one of these keys, Zack!” Ezra said studying the contents of a wooden box that was sitting on a small table next to a chair. A small jailers size iron ring of keys sat next to the mahogany box that was evidently left there long ago by someone who enjoyed looking or keeping watch out the window. Perhaps they had sat there cleaning the pistol in that spot because this space had the best light in the room and somehow got distracted and never returned for the fine piece of historic military hardware.

  “Wow, that’s sweet! Old cap and ball Colt six-gun pistol!” Nick said looking down and admiring it after crossing the room to see it better.

  “Looks like it has engraving of the name of an owner on it! Let me see if I can make it out.” Ezra said holding the pistol up to the light.

  “Says it belonged to a regimental surgeon named Hurd. I wonder if this was maybe his house?” Ezra speculated.

  “it might have been, or he could have gifted it to whoever stood here making medicines all day for protection or thanks. Folks! I think we have found ourselves an extremely rare bit of history here. Medicine back in the day wasn’t standardized until later in the Civil War, but this looks like they might have been producing and supplying the troops on some small scale maybe. There is enough for more drugs and such left here than whatever doctors lived around here needed.” Zack said.

  “So, this might have been some kind of secret Confederate rebel drug lab? I thought the south didn’t have much of anything since they couldn’t import medicines because of the Union blockade and that they didn’t have very many trained doctors. Pretty much everything I heard about battlefield medicine back then was fairly primitive and brutal.” Rachel said.

  “Actually, Rachel, Confederate doctors during the Civil War were more schooled and aware of the use of plants as medicine than were their counterparts serving in the Union Army. Take for example and consider this… The treatment for malaria is a good way to think of how divergent the methods of the day were with doctors in general on both sides. At the beginning of the War, old-guard Union military doctors still regularly followed the useless practice of bleeding (also known as blood-letting) and purging as the only official treatment for malaria. Even though there was a Dr. John Sappington, a physician from Arrow Rock, Missouri, that had been manufacturing and selling anti-malaria quinine pills (made from the bark of the Cinchona tree) since the 1820s to people setting out on the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails, and had demonstrated its effectiveness as a specific in treating malaria, it wasn’t until well into the war that military doctors stubbornly accepted quinine as a proven cure for malaria.” Ann said having had many lengthy discussions with Zack on the subject as they researched for hidden gems of lost knowledge to use in their own herbal preparations and realizations mosquito borne illness was increasing and needed to be prepped for, way before the grid went down.

  “Wow, I didn’t know any of that! That makes a whole lot of sense to me though, for you and Ann to study so much about what roots and herbs they used in the Antebellum-era then. I guess even more particularly so for y’all since you all live down here in Alabama full time.” Rachel responded.

  Zack had studiously been cursing and mumbling in the corner away from the others while trying keys in the cabinets’ lock with Donna and startled everyone when he yelled out “Bingo!” as he found one that worked!

  Everyone rushed over to see what the big cupboard contained and Ezra was soon disappointed not to see any kind of shiny treasure and instead just saw neatly stacked bottles of more dried-up medicines and several old books and ledgers.

  “Dang it! I still say that there is some gold or silver hid out around here somewhere!” He complained, vowing he was going to find it and set off on a new search.

  “There is a treasure here, Ezra, you just didn’t see it! This book I found is gold! I have studied copies of parts of it many times in internet archives but I have never seen the real thing altogether, except now! Let me tell you what this old valuable book is all about!” Zack said excitedly and moved over to the attic window to show it off and page through.

  He gingerly opened the old books’ deteriorating cracked leather cover to the first page and pointed at its old-style print before beginning to explain what this volume was.

  Page text: Resources of the southern fields and forests, medical, economical, and agricultural: being also a medical botany of the Confederate States; with practical information on the useful properties of the trees, plants and shrubs by Porcher, Francis Peyre, 1825-1895; Hines, P. E. (Peter E.), honoree.

  “You see, what a lot of folks don’t know much about, is that during the height of the Civil War, the Confederate Surgeon General commissioned a guide to traditional plant remedies of the South. It was to be used as a standardized guide for battlefield physicians who faced high rates of infections among the wounded and shortages of conventional medicines. The Confederacy commissioned a man called Francis Porcher, who was a botanist and surgeon from South Carolina, to compile a book of medicinal plants of the Southern states, including plant remedies used by Native Americans as well as enslaved Africans. The result was this book called the "Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests," and it was published in 1863. This was a major compendium of uses for plants that grew basically wild in the Confederacy. Dixieland medicine, I call it. This book that we were lucky enough to find here, so thoroughly described the indigenous herbs, their uses and dosages, that it was used as a reference for decades to come and it was considered to be a major medical breakthrough of the war. That was because it included a description of 37 species of plants for treating gangrene and other infections.” Zack said holding the book like it was the most valuable thing in the world to him at the moment as Ezra asked if it was o.k. now if he looked around in the cabinet in case the homeowner kept his doctors pay in there somewhere.

  “You can play in there and look for secret compartments in a minute, Ezra. Let me get that old fragile paperwork and those other books out of it first!” Zack said and then remarked about another historic find they had discovered and showed it by holding up a bunch of loose papers.

  “This was written by a guy called Samuel Moore, that fellow was the Confederate Surgeon General back then! He drew information from Porcher's work to produce this document called "Standard supply table of the indigenous remedies for field service and the sick in general hospitals.” I have never seen this document before, but I have heard of it rumored to exist. If a day comes around and you all ever can’t find me somewhere around the house, you won’t have to look far. I will most likely will be found sitting over there by that attic window reading over these old texts and digging in drawers looking around." Zack said excitedly, evidently enthralled to have these books in his possession.

  “In that case, let me go get my gun out of the way for you!” Ezra said walking over towards the small table to grab it.

  “Hold on now! How all the sudden did that become your gun?” Nick objected considering it community property.

  “Oh, let him have it, he is the one that found it first, anyway. It’s not like it holds any real value to us to speak of these days. Just don’t teach him how to load it. I don’t want to have nothing to do with patching either one of you up if it explodes!” Zack joked and Ezra put the wooden pistol case protectively under his arm and moved away with his treasure to look around in the cabinet next for more treasures.

  “Modern day doctors also sometimes study these old texts for answers. I remember seeing a new modern medical study of three of the plants from this guide -- the white oak, the tulip poplar and the devil's walking st
ick. The new research finds that they have antiseptic properties and they work on some very tough hard to kill germs we have difficulty with today. If you all ever hear me talking about tree medicine, rest assured I have spent years studying it and checking my facts; it’s some very potent stuff.” Zack said flipping through a few more pages and then eying another book.

  .

  3

  Romp And Stomp

  “What’s going on, Zack? You bring us something interesting to trade for today?” Sloan asked seeing him walk up from the main River camp bivouac area.

  “I think so, Sloan, but I am not sure exactly who might be a likely candidate to barter with and just what it is I might actually want to trade for just yet.” Zack replied.

  “So, you ain’t going to be telling me right off what you got in mind, that’s o.k., I will wait. You will have to spill the beans sooner or later. l ain’t worrying about it, it’s not like we got much of anything anyway that you might want or need to be trading for. You may as well go ahead and get around to showing it to me now and maybe I can make some suggestions seeing that I run most everything over here, store wise.” Sloan said eying the small box Zack was carrying.

  “I figured that you might be the best one to have some suggestions for me, but this is kind of a special item I have and I am finding it pretty hard for me to put a value on and say it. My item was once a rare but useful and affordable commodity to begin with before this grid collapse, but it never really commanded a huge price. I got a feeling now that prices and people’s needs are going to be going up quickly and I was trying to figure out how I ought to introduce it to the group and figure out a way for me to somehow profit from it the best.” Zack said carefully phrasing his response.

  “Well, if it’s as useful and as cool as you say, where there is a will there is a way when it comes to getting money for it, you know me. The way you are holding that little box level in both hands makes me think you found us some nitro glycerin or gun cotton or something!” Sloan said raising one eyebrow and wishing Zack would hurry up and display whatever it was.

  “Oh no, nothing like that. We ain’t going out to blow no bank safes. Were you ever, before the grid went down, one to have a mind for wanting to study herbs and essential oils and such?” Zack said sitting the box down on the surface of an old tree stump they jokingly called their “round table” for their barter meetings.

  “I know a bit about them; I wasn’t ever one myself to take regular vitamin supplements or anything, though. I used to take some regular doctor prescribed meds but I have been weaning myself off those because I will be out of them soon enough, as you well know. I already advised everyone, like you did, about the folks taking meds regularly not to try to just quit them cold turkey without easing into it a bit gentler like. No telling how sick folks could get trying to do that otherwise.” Sloan said and then picked up one of many small vials of brownish liquid Zack had produced from a vest pocket and set down on the stump.

  “What’s this stuff good for? Does it smell strong or taste nasty? Some new kind of new medicine you’re pushing?” Sloan said indicating he wanted to uncap and sniff it.

  “It doesn’t have much of a scent and as far as what it is good for, well, that is what is truly amazing about it and what we need to talk about. The name of the herb in that particular tincture is made from a plant called “Heal All or Self Heal”. Folks have been calling it by those names or something similar to them all over the world for centuries because of its proven curative powers for a wide variety of ailments. Now think about it this way Sloan, it’s pretty much good for whatever it is that ails you. I mean everything, it’s as simple and truthful as that! If you only got one medicine that you can depend on and if you don’t already know your wild botanicals or you are not a master herbalist to prescribe a specific medicinal plant for a specific ailment, it’s your must-have go-to remedy for pretty much everything your body needs a remedy for these hard days. When in doubt or when in need “Heal All” is your friend. I am making concentrated extracts of it now for my team’s medicine chest and figured that you all are going to need your own doctoring and “Self-Healing” over here the same as Rod’s bunch in the gated community will need some and I wanted your feedback on it.” Zack said.

  “Well, does it work? Never mind that, Zack, of course it works, if you offer it to me and say it does! I bet it wouldn’t have gotten that solid descriptive historic name it has if it didn’t, anyway. Does it have any other names it goes by I might know better? Also, I need to ask you, do you think it is any better for any one particular thing in specific?” Sloan asked, still holding the tiny dram vial and regarding it skeptically.

  “Well, I will get into all that with you here in a bit, but what I want you to think about is view it this way, Sloan. Now most everyone already knows and has accepted the fact pharmaceutical drugs are now sort of a thing of the past. That is, at least until a pharmacist sets up shop under a heavy guard to sell what can be salvaged from a heavily looted drug store or some kind of government medics or doctors arrive with a relief effort, both of which ain’t going to be happening. The chances for those options are not at all likely, we all know, so now the only options folks have is dust off the herbal books if they got any and hope that they can find something they can identify looking in the woods and fields for any kind of medicines. Now the clock is ticking for those in bad need of already missed regular medications, let alone all the folks out here with new bug bites, scrapes, diarrhea or various other boo boos and maladies so I scratched my herbal brain and came up with a panacea we can prescribe to people for it all.” Zack said.

  “And it really works, at least as good as some of that other stuff you had? That’s a pretty high standard to try to cover for a lot of ills. I suppose a lot of folks will just need to be convinced a little more to get them thinking that they are doing something more for themselves, medically speaking, to get some relief. The power of the mind is a wonderful thing for its own curative powers. I can’t, however, help but to think your one size fits all approach is going to be well received though, Zack. Sounds like you are going back to the days of patent drugs and snake oil salesmen. Will this work for snake bite, by the way? Never mind, you will tell me it will help with that and some other things like childbirth, regardless! You got any Dr. Carters Liver Pills? But I am curious, if you can reference me any facts later.” Sloan said now dabbing a bit on some infected mosquito bites he had gotten from scratching them too much in this dirty grid down environment.

  “Have you ever heard someone say, "More than Carter has little pills?” Here’s the story: This one is a saying that many Southerners know well, “They have more money than Carter has little pills.” Wait, what? If you’ve ever found yourself trying to explain the phrase “more than Carter has little pills” to a confused bystander, or if you’ve been on the other side trying to find answers to an expression that just doesn’t make any sense to you, well, let’s just get this part out of the way: The saying has nothing to do with former President Jimmy Carter. Not even a little bit. Carter’s little pills began as Carter’s Little Liver Pills, a patented medicine developed in 1868 by Erie, Pennsylvania’s Samuel J. Carter. At one time, everyone knew Carter’s Little Liver Pills because they were advertised widely. So widely, in fact, that it seemed Carter had an endless supply of pills—which is why the saying originated as “more than Carter has little liver pills.”

  “Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the pills were advertised by Carter’s Products of New York. The pills were marketed in newspapers and on cards as a potential cure-all. Carter’s claimed the pills would ease a variety of ailments, including headaches, digestive issues, and so-called torpid liver. They were very common in American households and could also be found internationally.”

  “Carter’s Little Liver Pills were billed as a medicine aiding bile flow in the liver. However, nearly a century later, they were proven to have nothing to do with the liver at all. Beginning in 194
3, the Federal Trade Commission fought for a name change. By 1959, the case was settled and the product became Carter’s Little Pills, completely removing any reference to the liver. From there, the saying gradually changed too and became "more than Carter has little pills." Zack elaborated.

  Most surprising of all? While the marketing is practically non-existent today and the packaging has changed, you can still find these storied little pills on Amazon. Carter’s Little Pills are currently on offer as a sodium-free laxative, the active ingredient of which is bisacodyl.

  Zack and his buddy got done laughing about the history of them little pills and got back to the business at hand.

  “To tell you the truth, Sloan, I ain’t exactly sure how much good straight Heal All plant would do you without combining it with something else more traditional, but it would do better than a lot of things you could put on a wound or drink if you got snake bit. See, my main point here is that it’s the best medicine we got, bar none, and it does have the extra flavonoids and immune body balancing characteristics and such to do something positive for pretty much any condition. We don’t have any antivenom like a hospital but my first aid kit has Heal All in it and the first step I would take before putting some on is calming the patient down so the poison doesn’t go faster through their blood stream. Then I would dump whatever kind of germ killer I got on the wound quick as I could because getting an infection from a snakebite is very likely. Snakes got some nasty mouths on them, if you know what I mean. Now that’s your basic external treatment for now. No stupid ass cutting X’s on the punctures: that fool notion almost always does more harm than good and if you don’t have a bite kit with an extractor suction cup thing, you are kind of past the point of help anyway except for a drawing poultice of some kind maybe with a capitol M. Now then, we know pouring whiskey on a bite, if it was all you had, might help some as antiseptic but you shouldn’t drink it in hopes of it helping you inside. There are a couple traditional snake weeds and roots maybe we could try, but who the hell can find those plants when they want or already have an elixir made up with no refrigeration needed with them usually? You can drink this stuff, eat the plant for dinner or make a medicine, make yourself some healing soothing tea, etc. and it has positive clinically documented properties that can assist in your recovery both internally and externally.” Zack said, regarding the man casually as Sloan raced through his military survival and medical training knowledge for a better answer to what he could effectively, or possibly suggest, should anyone have what was most likely to turn into a deadly encounter with some species of snake these days.