That's exactly what her mother did, but then they had to carry Bryanton anywhere she wanted to go, because she had herring tied to her feet. Duggan told mum to take a salt herring and split it and put one on each foot, tie it on each foot, to take the fever down.'

Somewhere or other they had heard that I was sick with the cold. 'We had neighbours just lived across the field from us,' she said. She told Dutch about one cold she had at the age of four or five. Bukaty/The Associated Press)Īmy Bryanton from Spring Valley lived to be 104. Many Islanders would have had a crock or barrel of salted fish such as herring in their pantry 100 years ago, and it was used in many home remedies. Some people claimed a snort of moonshine and chew of twist tobacco also did the trick of warding off the flu.Īnother piece of advice was 'don't stand in a doorway or you'll catch the flu.' That old adage was often repeated - people believed doorways were where germs are most prevalent. until 1967, when the law was changed to finally abolish permits that had been required to buy it. Amy BryantonĪn interesting sidebar: people were not able to freely buy liquor on P.E.I. And the next day he was fine!' Take a salt herring and split it and put one on each foot, tie it on each foot, to take the fever down. 'I can remember one fella, he thought he was taking the flu - and that was the deadly flu, the very early flu - he went somewhere and he got a bottle of moonshine and he drank it, and he flopped on the floor. 'If you couldn't get scripts, at that time of course moonshine was available,' recalled Wood. These prescriptions came to be known as 'scripts,' and were written by doctors. However, this quantity could be doubled if the person lived more than 10 miles from the vendor.

for much of the last century, certain retail vendors were allowed sell to any person presenting a prescription 24 ounces of wine or spirits or 12 quarts of ale 'not oftener than once a day,' according to the history of liquor on the P.E.I. Although liquor was tightly controlled on P.E.I. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)Īnd sometimes a good stiff drink helped cure the flu. Many people believed it helped cure colds and flu. by prescription in the first half of the last century, and then by permits.

Mustard plaster for colds