Old Time Medicine

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When I was a child, I read numerous novels written over a century ago, such as Anne of Gables, Emily of New Moon, and The Story Girl by L. M. Montgomery. Characters who got sick in these stories routinely mentioned taking laudanum. I hadn’t heard of this medicine but assumed it was similar to our everyday modern drugs. So I was surprised to later learn that laudanum is essentially opium. 

Anne of Green Gables took opium?

She almost certainly did. From the 18th to the early 20th century, laudanum was a common drug found in most household medicine cabinets. People took it for headaches, coughs, diarrhea, and “female complaints.” They fed drops to babies to ease teething pain and colic. 

Drawings reveal that the juice and seeds of the opium poppy were used as medicines in ancient Assyria and Egypt. Opium treatment emerged in Europe in the 1660s, when doctors dissolved opium in liquor and added cinnamon, cloves, other spices and sometimes honey to mask the plant’s bitter taste to create a drug they called laudanum. The medicine worked quickly and more effectively than other drugs available at the time and came to feature in about 25 % of all prescribed medications. Opium was also the secret ingredient in 19th century drugs advertised and sold under innocuous brand names like Dover’s Powder and Winslow’s Soothing Syrup.

While doctors appreciated the value of opium, they were aware of the dangers. Overdose, called “acute poisoning,” could be accidental or intentional. Opium was the most common method of suicide in the 1800s and too many drops of laudanum tragically resulted in infant deaths.

Addiction, or “chronic poisoning,” was another problem. Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s medical treatments led to a life-long laudanum addiction. His famous poem, “Kubla Khan,” was inspired by an opium dream.  

In the early 1880s, researchers isolated the active ingredient in opium and named it for Morpheus, the Greek god of sleep and dreams. Morphine is ten times as strong as the same amount of opium but can be more precisely measured, preventing overdose. Hypodermic needles were invented to inject morphine powder and soon people could buy hypodermic syringes in the Sears catalogue for $2.00. 

Next Bayer pharmaceuticals developed the even stronger heroin and marketed it with its other new drug, aspirin. Some people thought aspirin carried higher risks because it caused bleeding. 

But many doctors and members of the public pushed for restrictions on dangerous drugs. In the early 20th century, governments passed laws making opium and its derivatives only available by prescription and requiring companies to list ingredients on drug labels. Researchers gradually developed effective medicines with fewer serious side effects. Laudanum is still available today but is mainly prescribed to control diarrhea when other medications have failed. 

Why am I interested in old time medicine? It’s because my new historical mystery novel, A Killer Whisky, deals with common drugs of the early 1900s. These also included cocaine – great for nasal inflammation – and whisky. During Prohibition doctors were allowed to prescribe liquor to relieve stress, pain, and other physical and mental ailments. Many people took advantage of that legal loophole and enjoyed the medicine’s intoxicating side-benefits.  

References:

Halpern, John H., MD and Blistein, David. Opium: How an Ancient Flower Shaped and Poisoned Our World. New York: Hachette, 2019.

Inglis, Lucy. Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium. London: Macmillan, 2019.

Malleck, Dan. When Good Drugs Go Bad. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2015.

Ten Things I Love About New Brunswick

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When I was a child, I spent all my summer vacations on Deer Island, New Brunswick, where my father grew up. Most of my relatives on his side of the family still live in the area. This summer my husband Will and I spent 10 days in that Canadian Maritime province. It was our first visit in 10 years. While there are more than 10 things I love about New Brunswick, here are 10 of my favourites — not necessarily in order. 
  1    The ocean
The minute I arrive near the ocean, I breathe in the tangy, salty air. Ocean breezes kept us cool during the hot days of our trip and we loved the views of water, lighthouses, and fishing boats. 

   2  .  Bay of Fundy Tides: the highest tides in the world!
Due to the outlet’s unique funnel shape, billions of tons of water fill and empty the Bay of Fundy twice daily. A photo of a tidal scene looks remarkably different six hours later.  

Cars can only drive to Minister’s Island, St. Andrews, at low tide. During high tide this land bridge is covered with water.   

3     Bilingualism 
New Brunswick is Canada’s only officially bilingual province, guaranteeing equal rights, status, and privileges for English and French. Over thirty percent of residents speak French regularly at home. My father’s southeast area of the province is as unilingually English as it gets, but it was originally part of the French colony of Acadia. French place names survive with English pronunciations. Our rental house in St. George was on the L’Etete (Luteet) road near my aunt’s home on the St. Croix (Saint Croy) River. In contrast, since the 1960s the City of Moncton has made great strides to become fully bilingual.  Our walking tour was advertised as French only, but our bilingual guide conducted it in English since we were the only tourists who showed up.    

Monument commemorating the mass deportation of the Acadians. 

   4      Seafood   
The Acadian town of Shediac calls itself the “Lobster Capital of the World.”  A 90-ton sculpture named The World’s Largest Lobster greets visitors. Highlights of our whole New Brunswick trip were local haddock & chips, scallops, chowder, and lobster rolls. 

                                                                     Lobster Roll platter

                                                 Seafood chowder with half lobster roll and chips 

Shediac “World’s Largest Lobster”

   5      Wild blueberries & raspberries
One of my favourite childhood holiday activities was picking wild raspberries and blueberries. This year I plucked some raspberries from a patch on Deer Island Point and found them far more flavourable than ones I buy in Calgary or grow in my home garden. No wonder I liked picking berries so much.  

   6     Ferry Boat rides

We chose our L’Etete road location for its twelve-minute drive to Deer Island to visit relatives and familiar sights. The ferry ride itself is worth the price and not only because it’s free. Locals make fun of tourists who get out of their cars to enjoy and photograph the views, but I do it every time.  

   7     Historic Saint John 
Saint John, a ferry ride and hour’s drive from Deer Island, is Canada’s oldest incorporated city. The downtown core and scenic parks highlight Saint John’s history. 

Will Arnold and former Saint John resident Benedict Arnold in Wolastoq Park

King’s Square two-storey King Edward VII bandstand

Market Square on the waterfront 



 8   Parlee Beach Provincial Park
Parlee beach, located on the Northumberland Strait that flows between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, boasts the warmest salt water north of Virginia. The shallow water, soft sand, and sandbars caused by tides make it a great playground for children. It’s also fun for adults on a hot day.

   9      Lack of crowds & rural lifestyle
New Brunswick’s entire population totals around 776,000. Only about half of the province’s residents live in the urban regions of Moncton, Saint John, and Fredericton. Through our trip, we enjoyed the gently rolling farms, the rustic fishing villages, and having the roads to ourselves much of the time.

  10     My family – lastly but far from least
New Brunswick residents tend to be salt-of-the-earth down home people who don’t put on airs and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else on earth. 

Aunt Kay and me on the wharf in Fairhaven, Deer Island

 

Mastering the Macabre

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At Calgary’s When Words Collide Festival for Writers and Readers this weekend, I’ll be moderating a panel titled “Mastering the Macabre: Techniques in Crime, Mystery, and Thriller Writing. The session will explore the techniques used to create heart-pounding narratives that keep readers hooked until the very end. Hear from panelists as they discuss how to craft compelling mysteries, develop intricate crime plots, and evoke suspense. Ideal for writers seeking to sharpen their skills and fans of the genre. Join us Saturday at 9:00 am for a discussion that I expect to be both enlightening and entertaining.

Panelist Juanita Rose Violini created this chilling poster:

Biking Through the Mountains

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Each spring my husband Will and I look forward to doing e-bike rides on mountain highways while they are closed to vehicle traffic. This year we managed three spectacular rides.

The first was on the Sheep River Road, which is about an hour and half drive south of our home in Calgary. On May 10th, our group of eight met at the winter gate that blocks off the last 18 kilometres of the unplowed highway from Dec 1 to May 14 every year. The snow gradually disappears from the road in April. 

May 10th turned out to be a beautiful blue-sky day. Our summer clothing contrasted the snow-covered mountains.  

Three members of our group met the challenge of the hills on regular bikes. Impressive! We took many stops along the way, including one for the highway’s namesake bighorn sheep.  

And a picnic lunch at the Sheep River Falls. 

On our return trip, another biker snapped a shot of the whole group. 

Our second ride this spring was the Highwood Pass, the highest paved road in Canada. It closes to traffic from December 1 to June 14 due to high snowfall and to protect wildlife. The first two weeks of June the road is free from snow for biking. It’s hard to find a parking spot on the popular weekends. Seven of us went Thursday, June 7, the weekday with the best weather forecast during that narrow biking window. 

We enjoyed blue skies, but the brisk wind made the riding cool and the uphill sections more challenging, especially for intrepid Sam, on a regular bike. He also took our group selfie. 

The return ride was mostly downhill with the wind behind us, which made for lovely coasting through gorgeous mountain scenery. 

Our last mountain road ride of the season was June 14th on the Bow Valley Parkway from Banff to Johnston Canyon. This highway stays open in winter but closes to cars in June and September to protect wildlife and allow cyclists to enjoy the road. Tourists can rent e-bikes in Banff for the 50-kilometre return journey. The Parkway’s hills are less steep than those of Sheep River and Highwood highways. This time regular bikers outnumbered e-bikers 4-3 in our seven person group. 

The weather forecast was 40 percent rain and we got pelted with with cold drops during a five-minute downhill section.  My cotton pants were drenched but dried quickly in the breeze when the sun reappeared. 

We heard reports of four bears sighted on the roadside. We missed them, but once more encountered bighorn sheep.   

These highways are so long that I’ve never felt crowded even when I’ve gone on popular weekends. This spring we did all three rides on weekdays and most of the time we had the roads entirely to ourselves. 

Novels Make Great Historical Research

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My favourite research for my novel-in-progress set in 1918 Calgary has been reading novels written by contemporary authors of the time. This week I finished Rilla of Ingleside, the eighth and last book of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series. When I was a child, I devoured all the Anne books. I loved the first three novels in the series best, but once Anne realized Gilbert was her true love she got boring and the stories shifted focus to her six children. The story of Rilla, the youngest, grabbed me more than those of her older siblings because Rilla grows as a character and the war’s impact was poignant. 

Rilla of Ingleside is set during World War One. The novel begins with the war’s start in 1914 and ends shortly after the Armistice of November 11, 1918. Wikipedia calls Rilla of Ingleside “the only Canadian novel written from a contemporary woman’s perspective about the First World War.” I found it an excellent portrait of the experiences, views, and feelings of people living on the Canadian home front. The book led me to make a few changes to my novel, A Killer Whisky, which takes place during the Great War’s final month.  

Rilla lived in Prince Edward Island. A friend loaned me four novels written by early twentieth century Alberta writers. As their titles suggest, Cattle by Winnifred Eaton and The Cow Puncher by Robert J.C. Stead are largely set in ranch country, but the characters venture into Calgary. The Cow Puncher gets into World War One, which ties to its theme that meaning comes from service rather than selfishness. Cattle deals with the 1918 Influenza Pandemic aka the Spanish flu, which features prominently in A Killer Whisky.

The Shadow Riders by Isabel Paterson is set entirely in Calgary during the pre-war real estate boom. While reading all of the books, I kept a pen and sheet of paper handy to jot notes on descriptions of Calgary during that era, details of daily life, and word usage. A hundred years ago, expressions of surprise and horror tended to come from religion, such as “Lord Almighty!” “I’ll be damned!” and the softer “Heavens!” Peppering a novel with these as well as slightly archaic phrases — “he was wont to say,” “it’s a mortal disgrace,” “wicked to do this” — helps bring readers into that former time. 

The fourth Alberta novel I read, The Magpie’s Nest, was Isabel Paterson’s second published novel. Set partly in rural Alberta and New York City, it provided less Calgary detail than The Shadow Riders, but The Magpie offered some interesting commentary. Today’s writers tired of the pressure to promote themselves on social media might appreciate this Magpie character’s view of fan worship: “What does anyone want to meet an author for? Or a painter, or any famous person? You’ve got all the best of them in whatever they create. I’d as soon meet a cook because I liked the meal.”

In addition to their practical value for research, I found these five novels jolly good reads. The female characters are remarkably spirited and smart. While the books’ styles are somewhat dated, I enjoyed them more than many modern novels I’ve read. There’s good reason to call them classics, but they all aren’t easy to get your hands on.  

Rilla of Ingleside is the only one available for takeout from my Calgary Public Library due to the continued popularity of the Anne of Green Gables series. Cattle, re-released last year by Invisible Publishing to mark the 30th anniversary of Winnifred Eaton’s death, is available only for in-library use. You aren’t likely to find Cattle on a bookstore shelf, but it can be ordered or purchased online. The Leopold Classical Library has republished Isabel Paterson’s two novels by scanning the originals since books published in the United States before 1929 are now in the public domain. You can also read e-book versions free online.      

I liked The Shadow Riders so much that I bought the republished paperback and was surprised — “Good Heavens!” — when it arrived in 8 1/2 x 11 format in large font with wide margins. A bargain for $30, even though the original novel probably cost about 50 cents in 1918.