You are right there Ren. Although not ALL of them do. There are three here that do taste actually alright, two of those taste downright lovely, namely Gee's linctus and the non-sugar free variety of codeine linctus. There are two of those, one with a vile sugar-free synthetic orange flavor, which I find repulsive due to its association mentally
with, as the flavoring is identical, a penicillin liquid I was given as a kid for a tooth infection after I snapped a tooth clean in half playing football with another kid at my Kanner's
school, after we both chased after the ball at the same time and met in the middle, I snapped a tooth on his head, and he ended up with half a tooth, snapped to a sharp point down the diagonal axis, buried in his forehead. The break caused a severe and truly agonizing infection, it was absolutely horrifically painful, never felt anything even close to
so shockingly painful in my entire life. Not even other infections (soft tissue that is), not even when I gripped hold of a lab flask to find it had gotten concentrated perchloric acid dribbled down the neck, which caused the degloving of most of my palm. Skin and flesh came right off leaving bare muscle, covered in acid, behind. And a similar thing happened with thionyl chloride once too, although that was an ordinary spill, onto my thick leather gloves, which just started rotting and falling to pieces, the metal spikes on the back rusting and flaking and corroding too. Went straight through the gloves and onto my hand, when I pulled the glove off, it removed the skin of my hand, palm side, and of my fingers in places also, pulled the glove off and it just tore a layer of corroded skin and flesh off again leaving bare, blistered muscle tissue behind. That one really did make me shriek in shock when it happened...fuck me it hurt. All the more since SOCl2 hydrolyzes in moisture to a mixture of SO2 and HCl(g).
Anyhow I am badly allergic to β-lactam antibiotics and it made me quite unwell, although luckily since it was the first exposure presumably, that helped protect me from full-blown anaphylaxis. The taste of the stuff was foul to begin with but the association does not help in the least, although its not the orange flavor itself that made me actually
ill, but the penicillin. Theres a non sugar-free version though thats flavoured with a little chloroform, and that actually tastes very good. Enough to drink almost the entire bottle in one big gulp. Most but not all, being for the reason that there is per bottle, 600mg of codeine. The liver can only process half a gram at a time, at most. Barring those occasional people with extremely active cytochrome P450-2D6 enzyme alleles.
Gee's linctus is flavoured with something treacly, something kinda hot, not sure what that is but IMO likely capsaicin/capsicum oleoresin, plus honey. Has a hot burn on the way down that warms one all the way from throat to stomach. Nice on a cold wintery day, the active ingredient being tincture of opium. Not isolated codeine/morphine either, actual proper opium tincture. Over the counter, not terribly strong but enough to give quite a kick, and even more so if someone hadn't a tolerance through E.g chronic pain treatment (which reminds me, need to go stick some oxy in my system
)
The last of the three tasty ones, is J.Collis Browne's mixture. An old, old OLD fashioned remedy, I THINK its actually in my copies of 'the household physician', author McGregor Robertson, that date all the way back from the 18th century. Can't remember if its in my copy of Vol I or Vol II, and cbf searching as its unimportant which book of the pair they are in. Active ingredients are 20mg anhydrous morphia per bottle (100ml, easily taken as a single shot), a little peppermint oil, something treacly tasting and capsicum oleoresin which gives it a fiery kick combined with cooling mintyness. Quite nice too.
Those books really are the pride of my collection of such literature though too. Big, heavy leather-bound and leather-spined tomes, with the first pages and inside of the covers being an ink-marbled work of art, as are the edges of the pages, not on the flat axis but on the very edges, so as to give a colored, marbled appearance when the book is closed. Paper slightly yellowed with the breath of antiquity, although they are in excellent condition and the pages are of top quality paper. And they have numerous little snippets of ordinary household paper from the time period tucked in, that are handwritten in a lovely, if difficult to read cursive script, and contain the personal notes and recipes for various remedies, penned by some past owner of the books. Titles inlaid in something like gold leaf possibly, or other gold ink in the spines of the books.
I'd love to know for knowledges sake, how much the pair are worth, either individually or together as a pair, being two halves of the same work. They are, or were, intended as household medical manuals, covering everything from surgical techniques, to bonesetting, to herbal remedies, to the use of heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, antimony and mercury, and also the identification of and aid to be rendered in case of poisoning by various things, from aconite (wolfbane, monkshood) to corrosives such as caustic potash and acids like HCl, sulfuric, oxalic (damages kidneys and causes heart failure in addition to its moderate acidity) and HNO3 (nitric acid), by the different appearances of the wound and coloration left behind by burns (for example, sulfuric burns from concentrated acid, rather than dilute, cause severe charring and sloughing off of decomposed flesh and tissue that has been quite literally charred to ashes and dehydrated to carbonaceous matter, due to its severely and powerfully dehydrating effect, which makes the acid heat up also on hydration and inflicts thermal burns in addition to those from the usual protonation by the acid itself), whilst nitric acid leaves a yellowish-brown ring like a halo around the circumference or zone of contact of the acid burn, and turns exposed tissue yellowish on the surface.
They also cover first aid, and all sorts of anatomical delvings, the use and in many cases preparation also, of various sedatives, and lots and lots and LOTS of the primitive med chem of the ages, of the very juiciest kind. I want to know what they are worth, but at the same time, I'd not sell them for anything, well almost anything. A very very extensive set of new lab glass and equipment of the very highest quality, yes, plus a shopping-list of my choosing for Mr.Claus to bring me a nice new collection of reagents, precursor speciality chemicals and catalysts, plus industrial sized tanks of chlorine gas, SO2, N2O, NO, NO2, N2O4 and a permanent hookup for liquid helium and liquid nitrogen, plus Dewar flasks to keep them in, yes. But otherwise those books would have to be dragged from me, with me kicking, screaming, clawing biting and throwing bottles of the most corrosive (but cheapass) things that generally make their homes upon my tower of reagent shelves, and reagent cupboards, and all the flammables that the solvent drawers and set of solvent storage cupboards under my lab bench. And hell, the taker of said books would have to face torrents of the concentrated acids and industrial strength hypochlorite bleach in the 4-5 gallon drum that I.....obtained....some time ago, and has been large enough to serve me ever since, and the toxic diphenylmethane-4,4-diisocyanate from the heavy-as-hell 4-gallon tank. And thats someone attempting to BUY the books. A thief...they would be DRINKING the aforesaid corrosives and caustics and reactive nasties.
And I assume you mean 'don't know how I can drink....', Ren?
To that, the answer must perforce be 'Well I open my bottle of cough syrup, open my mouth, put my lips to the bottle and chug it down'
If its codeine linctus though, that I like to savour, and take smaller slugs of it, that way I can enjoy the taste for longer. Or a favourite cocktail of mine, that I invented myself is made from it, although it MUST be the chloroform-flavored non-sugar-free kind, 'Care+' is the brand that must be used.
One bottle of codeine linctus, saving of course the 100mg worth that would go wasted if taken at once for later use,
Some tesco own-brand cheap lime pop.
Vodka, quantity according to the taste of the person drinking it.
Some 'Britvic' lime cordial. Only a little needed, as its quite strong and needs dilution in the lime fizzy pop.
And lastly, a suitable glass that will both not melt, and will float upon the surface of the drink. This is to create an effect kind of like a jagerbomb, only what goes into the shot glass is diethyl or diisopropyl ether, non-peroxidation-inhibited as one probably doesn't want to drink the inhibitors, that said, butylated hydroxytoluene will be harmless as its also used as a food additive in certain things as an antioxidant. So not dangerous.
The EtOEt or iPrOiPr must be of the very highest quality, seeing as it is to be floated upon the top of the drink, and shotted down one's neck in a single gulp when starting to consume the cocktail.
Layer linctus, which is heavy and sinks to the bottom due to the density of the sugary base plus the chloroform oils out somewhat in little droplets on the bottom, although retaining the flavor all the same, with the lime soda over the top, finally, CAREFULLY pour, ever so slowly, the chilled, ice-cold vodka, flavoured with some of the Britvic lime cordial, or Rose's lime cordial will do also, I prefer the Britvic version though to taste. then last of all goes in the little shooter of diethyl ether, diisopropyl ether or a mixture of the two, diluted with a little bit of vodka. The ether or ethers, should first be chilled in the fridge, the cocktail prepared as a long drink, in layers one ingredient over the others as far as possible, taking especial care not to disturb the layer of codeine syrup on the bottom of the glass, and thenceforth ice cubes or chips of ice is to be carefully floated upon the vodka and lime, and the chilled shooter of ether or ethers then floated on top, in the middle of the lake of floating ice chips.
Long, tall glass is best. Ether/s consumed in a single gulp moving down to the rest of the drink to wash them down. Oral diethyl ether is pretty potent stuff, a tablespoonful has a real hard kick to it, diisopropyl ether seems to me, from experience, to be a bit less potent by weight than EtOEt seems to be. Diethyl ether actually isn't such a bad thing to consume orally, although in modern times its more often inhaled by those who wish to intake, but during american prohibition on alcohol, ether was not banned, and drinkers of spirits turned to oral diethyl ether. As have the irish in the past when alcohol was banned. Unlike the usual drink, ethyl alcohol, it does not undergo oxidation to the noxious, toxic metabolite acetaldehyde, or if it does whatsoever its in quantities too insignificant to be of any bother at all. And its nearly to totally free of hangover as a result too. And it smells absolutely fantastic:) I have to say, of all the scents, smells odors and on occasion utter, most virulent and teeth-curling stenches that may arise in a lab, along with the ultra-concentrated, cyanide-like bitter almond/marzipan aroma of benzaldehyde, the scents of nitromethane and nitroethane, the delightful perfume of diethyl ether has to be my joint favourite of all scents that have ever arisen from my test-tubes, flasks, still-pots or escaped from the top of a condenser, etc.
I call my cocktail, unofficially named, a 'Manhattan Project', a pun on the manhattan cocktail and the manhattan project, which was the codename for the wartime U.S nuclear development and testing program. Due to the kick of the ether and codeine syrup.
