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Pastimes : My House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E who wrote (2210)	10/5/2002 8:53:56 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Respond to of 7689

I wonder if people were less unhappy than they are now. I doubt that anything has changed. Material things and prosperity has little effect on this, I believe. A Mercedes might make you happy for a short period of time; a devoted husband or wife can do that for decades. They had less time to worry about it though. :-) The average life expectancy in the US was forty-seven (47). Not as much less as that would indicate; high infant mortatlity severely affected that number. Once someone survived childhood, their chances of a fairly long life weren't a whole lot worse than yours or mine. Ninety percent of all US physicians had no college education. Apprenticeship was until this century the commonest way of training physicians. Medical schools have existed almost since the inception of universities in the renaissance, but only a very small percentage of the population ever attended. "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and the bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health." This used to be (and maybe still is) one of the commonest of medical mistakes. Powerful drugs that could kill pain were ascribed almost magical powers. When cocaine was isolated and its properties were discovered, it was claimed to have wondrous properties. Freud was one of its promoters. He claimed it revivified patients, relived depression, stopped pain, AND was totally non-addictive. He recommended all physicians use it in preference to morphine. A previous wonder drug.