Tar Water

In Chapter 2 of Great Expectations Pip writes about how Mrs Joe was very particular about Tar water.  Dickens is helping to create a modest rural home where simple, inexpensive remedies are used instead of professional medical treatment.  It also contributes to Mrs Joe's character who relies on traditional methods. 

Tar water was a medical drink used in 18th and early 19th centuries.  It was made by stirring pine tar into water, allowing it to settle, and then drinking the clear liquid.  People believed it could cure a wide variety of illnesses --- from coughs and cold to stomach problems. The remedy became popular after Irish philosopher and bishop George Berkeley praised it as a near universal medicine.

In Dickens time, however, tar water had been already regarded by many as old fashioned, and associated with poor.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thousand & One Nights: 72nd Night contd.The Story of Two Viziers

The province of Egypt. Once, here lived a king. He was kind, generous, trusted, courageous and just. He associated himself with learned. He was sympathetic to poor. He had a wise and experienced vizier. The vizier had two sons. And they were two moons. They were elegant, beautiful and graceful. The elder was Shams al Din Muhammad, and the younger was Nur al Din Ali. The younger was more beautiful than the elder. When the vizier died the King summoned the sons of vizier and said, "You shall take your father's place and be joint viziers of Egypt." They kissed the ground before him and withdrew. For a full month they performed the ceremonial mourning of their father. After the mourning, they assumed their duties; each of them accompanied the king on alternate weeks. When they did not accompanied the king they were in charge of other duties. The two lived in the same house and their word was one. Both brothers were in their house. It was a night. The elder brother was to set ...
Read more

Thousand & One Nights: 70th Night

Harun al Rashid on his roaming the country side, saw a fisherman who did not have any catch for the day and worried about his family's bread. The Caliph had brought him to the banks of Tigris and asked him to throw the net. When they pulled the net the catch was a locked heavy chest. The Caliph paid him one hundred dinars. The chest was taken to the palace. Now the story to continue: When the chest was opened there was a girl. She had been cut into nineteen pieces. The Caliph looked at her, felt very sad, and turned to Ja'far and said angrily, "You, dog of a vizier, people are being killed and thrown into river in my city while I take the responsibility of Doomsday. If you do not find her killer, I will hang you and forty of your kin with you." "O Commander of the Faithful, give me three days."Ja'far said. Ja'far went into the city, vexed, worried and sad. He had no idea what to do. He thought to himself, "Where shall I find the murderer?" ...
Read more

Thousand & One Nights: 72nd Night

When the story was completed by the young man the king was astonished. "By God, I will hang none," said the king. But he had already decided to find out the slave who played trick on the young man. He said to Ja'far, "Go to the city and bring the slave, or I will strike your neck." Ja'far left in tears in search of the slave. How could he identify the slave who snatched the apple from the young man's son. He thought, "There is no escape from death this time, for the jar cannot be saved everytime. All powerful and omnipotent God who saved me always save me again. By God, I will stay home for three days until God's will is accomplished. He stayed home for two days, and for the third day, by noon, giving himself up for lost, Ja'far summoned the judges and witnesses, and made his will. Then he called his children to him, bade them farewell, and wept. Soon a messenger from the Caliph arrived. He informed that the Caliph was in great rage and swor...
Read more