Being ill, keeping healthy

Sarsaparilla label

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In the first half of the twentieth century, expensive healthcare, bad housing and poor diets contributed to the the nation's health.

On this page and in The Black Spot of Brighton , Brighton plagues , Tales before and after the NHS and Products to keep you healthy: then and now we explore memories of unsanitary housing, the spread of disease and how health cures have differed from the past to the present.

You can download Being ill, keeping healthy and its accompanying pages by clicking here (PDF format).

Terrible conditions
Conditions were terrible in those days, proper diets were non-existent and fresh milk was a luxury we couldn't often afford. A lot of children died young. Ricketts was a prevalent disease, when little legs became like broomsticks and were often crooked. Consumption, or TB as we know it now, was a dreaded word, with the damp houses and bug infested bedrooms, children grew up with the smell of dankness and illness.
Georgina Attrell - Backyard Brighton

Neighbours pitched in to help the ill
There was a marvelous neighborly spirit in those years. If you were ill, the whole street was concerned and wanted to do something about it and they did. They took it in turns to make milk puddings and custards out of their little money. Anything they could do to help.
John Langley - Always a Layman

If a neighbour fell ill we would still help, despite having fallen out before. Neigh­bours were neighbours then, and you would share everything that you got.
Mrs. Barnett - Back Street Brighton

There was a community spirit, engendered of course by the fact of all being in the same boat...Unlike some I cannot say that I look back on those days with any affection. The memories I have are of being damned cold in winter, suffering chilblained ears which bled, having rick­ets through my poor diet and certainly not being over protected by my parents.
Mr. W.G. Holmes - Back Street Brighton

Keeping healthy
Eat a raw onion and drink Sarsaparilla
Sometimes in Trafalgar Street Dad called into the herbalist's to buy a lump of licorice for sore throats, or a drink called Sarsaparilla, or some other herbal remedy. We never went to doctors, because we could not afford them. A winter cold was treated by eating a raw onion, and by rubbing the chest with camphorated oil. A glass of hot homemade elderberry wine was another winter remedy very much enjoyed when I had a cough.
Ruby Dunn - Mouslecoomb Days

Nasty ointment
Sickness was a do it yourself affair, or a visit to the herbalist, sending for the doctor was unheard of because nobody could afford it. There were two herbalists who were patronised by the street, one by the name of Stokes, who had his establish­ment at the corner of Waterloo Place and Phoenix Place, the other at the Open Mar­ket at the London Road entrance.

When I was diagnosed by my mother as having mumps or swollen glands, she took me to the Open Market herbalist who concocted some black ointment to be applied once a day and I was cured. Whether this was due to the ointment or nature I wouldn't like to say.
Mr W.G. Holmes - Back Street Brighton

A double dose of syrup of figs
After our baths we were given a dose of syrup of figs whether we needed it or not. I loved it, but my brother hated it, so if Granma or Mother wasn't looking I used to drink mine quickly and exchange my empty spoon for my brother's full one. It was ages before I realised I was having a double dose, though it never seemed to do me any harm. We were always given a sweet after the medicine and although I often used to drink my brother's medicine I never got his sweet.
L. Scarborough - Backyard Brighton