uncle phil

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"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
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"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
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never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.

LordEden

Thinking about your old tooth ache remedies, philly?

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Vice-President of the CinnamonGirl Fan Club - The Meat of the Zombiesquirrel and CinnamonGirl Sandwich

KirStang

Isn't it interesting that what was once considered benign is now considered a hardcore drug?

Interesting.

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CypherBlack

people often test cocaine by rubbing it on their gums. it makes them numb. its very effective for this use.
what a shame it cant be used for this now

jannista

How come they could handle it back in the old days of yore, but now we can't take it and it ruins lives?

What happened to humanity along the way?

flat5

It is still used by dentists...here.

It is used in cataract operations.

chinese crested

I remembered Ether sweets, looked them up and found this.

.An older friend of mine told me that when he was young, he would go down to the village sweet shop and ask for a quarter of paregorics for a treat - that was a bit of a mouthful for a child, and I can't say it sounds very appealing. Why paregoric, as it is such a strange name? Well, paregoric comes from a Greek word which means strengthening aid, and paregoric sweets were for coughs - basically something to fortify you through those times when you were feeling a little under the weather. They are medicinal - they used to contain chloroform and customers were restricted to buying only ¼ lb at a time. I think the chloroform was to knock you out or numb your throat - one of the two! In fact, my friend told me, when you ate one, your throat and tongue went all tingly as it did go a little numb. Today, we can still buy paregorics - but they aren't as strong, and they contain ether and linseed oil to soothe the throat instead of chloroform. We know them as Victory V's.

Packaging They come in a bright red paper tube - folded at each end. They have "Victory" written in large white letters and "V" in a large black letter - it stands out. Underneath are the words in yellow "Forged for Strength". The packet of sweets are 8 cm long.

What do they look like? They are like no other sweet (cough or otherwise!) I know. They are little browny grey tablets (rectangles with the corners cut off) which look like they've been made out of forcibly compressed powder - at a guess, they probably are made that way! There are 2 designs stamped on one side of the sweet - either "Victory V" in letters, or an anvil with a hammer suspended over it. I guess the anvil and hammer are designed to illustrate that the sweets are forged for strength!

Ingredients
I'm not going to give a long list of ingredients, but I am going to emphasise that these contain ether - not everyone can take this, and you should know that they contain it. Ether is an anesthetic and is there to help soothe the throat. Also, another ingredient you may want to know about is liquorice - one of those love or hate ingredients!


Taste I love these, but I expect lots of you will hate them. When you pop one in your mouth, there is a really sharp taste. It's like no other flavour I know! There is a hint of the liquorice, but, the flavour just overwhelms your mouth - I think that may be caused by the ether. The flavour seems to find it's way up your nostrils and to the back of the throat. I guess it has a hint of tasting like mouthwash (a very nice mouthwash), but I suppose I'm trying to say they do have a medicinal taste to them. As for smell - they don't smell of anything - which is probably just as well!!

Do they work? As a cough sweet, or throat soother, they don't work for me!! I'm terrible, I just can't eat sweets without crunching them. When you crunch these, they break off in sharp splinters which get down my throat and cause me to cough!! I sort of ruin the point of their existence - but I don't eat them for their medicinal qualities, I eat them because I love the taste! I then find them addictive, and end up eating loads of them in one go, and then have a huge coughing fit - I just don't seem to learn! I have just tried to eat one without crunching, and managed to suck most of it, before my jaws got the better of me! I can see that if I sucked them like you're supposed to do, they would probably have a very soothing effect on a sore throat. I shall just have to try to do that in future!

Cost
I bought mine for 45p, but I've just checked on line and they sell for 75p on the Traditional online sweet shop | Over 500 all-time favourites from the best manufacturers | Delivered all over the world from the UK| In-stock now! site. Mine were bought in a branch of Savers. I do find these hard to get hold of these days - so you may need to shop around if you would like to try them.

Recommendation
If you like liquorice, you ought to try these. I think they are great, but then again, I've been brought up to eat loads of liquorice. If you don't like strong flavours, then you should probably stay clear of these, you will probably want to spit them out. So in other words, I know that these aren't to everyone's taste. If you haven't eaten them before though, and you like to try new flavours - go on give them a go!!

Contact for more information
Ernest Jackson & Co
Crediton
Devon EX17 3AP
United Kingdom