# Chilblains? Seriously, \_Chilblains\_!? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 24, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673 "2013-11-24T15:24:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/61 "2015-03-06T18:14:50Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Since many herbal concoctions won’t dissolve well in water but will in alcohol, a lot of those patent medicines were so tee-totaling women could get a good stiff drink every day. Yeah, I’m aware that the main ingredient was alcohol. That’s why I said arsenic was the “active” ingredient, and not the main one. Most of them were 95% alcohol-- and 3% some kind of syrup for flavor. The other 2% was whatever was actually supposed to help you. Of course, modern pills have a lot of binders, sugars (to stimulate digestion, apparently), coatings, dyes (there are good reasons for making the 10mg pill a different color from the 5mg) and preservatives, so the actual medicine is probably just a small part of the pill as well. I wonder if patent medicine makers started using alcohol for it’s antiseptic qualities and ability to dissolve things that won’t break down in water, and then discovered that people would buy the product for the alcohol alone, or if they were cynically distributing liquor from the very beginning. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/62 "2015-03-06T18:17:52Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Mine, too. Although these days, it seems to be galloping instead of creeping. I have an uncle who accuses people of having “ferro-plumbism.” All the iron in their bodies turned to lead in their butts. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/63 "2015-03-06T19:29:21Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I have an uncle who accuses people of having “ferro-plumbism.” All the iron in their bodies turned to lead in their butts. Isn’t that a symptom of cranio-rectal inversion? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/64 "2015-03-06T19:47:01Z")
> [@FlyingRat](#): > > For me, it’s the “Peruvian Hamsterpox”. I get recurrences of the Elder Plague. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/65 "2015-03-07T00:07:51Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I have an uncle who accuses people of having “ferro-plumbism.” All the iron in their bodies turned to lead in their butts. Causing Plumber’s Butt? ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/66 "2015-03-07T10:56:15Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > As a [del]wise[/del] man once said:[url=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUVwR0rw5fk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUVwR0rw5fk)] I’m suffering from a case of the Woofits, and alcohol is the cause and cure. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/67 "2015-03-07T11:27:14Z")
Bunions! ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/68 "2015-03-07T13:07:33Z")
I’ve got consumption \*\*\*and \*\*\*TB! I’ve got every 19th-century disease! (probably misquoting Jeremy Clarkson) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673/69 "2015-03-09T13:43:39Z")
At least you don’t have bowel moths, or “ladies’ complaints”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chilblains-seriously-_chilblains_/674673.md?page=3)