Link.
Sounds like he was trying to use it for an antiseptic. Or kill you.
That’s what I thought. We were made to gargle salt water for a time afterwards.
Eventually we all had our tonsils out. My Daddy was a Marine, so one by one we went to the Naval hosp. and had them removed. There were 7 of us so it took about a year. He was dedicated, for sure. That a year in my life I could’ve lived without.
Yes, VV is quite effective for this purpose, as well as making it easier to change REALLY bad diapers, clean up a very bad restroom, pump out a “shitter,” get a dead animal out from under the house, and so forth and so forth.
When I was a kid in the '60s it was normal practice to to be given a spoonful of Vicks to eat after having it rubbed onto your chest and a little bit under your nose. It tasted great. My grandmother always called it “croup salve”. Of course, if my mother thought I was really sick, I got pine tar on my chest, but still ate the vicks 
It’s a wonder we all got out of childhood alive. It’s a big no-no to give babies and kids baby aspirin. I can still taste those orange flavored ones that melted on your tongue, I had many doses.
I gave my kids benadryl liberally for their allergies, they say that not a good idea now, either. I think may have had to have a prescription for it.
Interesting. In Silence of the Lambs they put a white powder under their noses before working on a cadaver. It must have been to kill the stench but I have no idea what it was.
Yep. My Dad told me that when he was growing up in the 1930’s they would eat the stuff when they were sick. So the practice goes back a ways.