Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/02/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 2/13/01 8:20 PM, Henry Ambrose at digphoto@telalink.net wrote: > What is codswallop anyway? As far as I know it was a patent medicine in Britain in the late 1800s/early 1900s. I think it was a kind of cod liver oil or something that purported to be good for you (and no doubt tasted vile) but actually had no effect whatsoever. Anyways, as a result Cod's Wallop as it was known colloquially, became a kind of byword for stuff that was supposed to be good but wasn't, if you see what I mean. It's all a load of Cod's Wallop! I know this because I made a film about the foundation of the British National Heatlth Service to celebrate the 50th anniversary, and one of our interviewees was an extraordinarily old pharmacist who knew all about the stuff. (The coming of the NHS put a lot of patent medicines out of business, but the pharmacists did very well). This has been a public service announcement. - -- John Brownlow http://www.pinkheadedbug.com