Uh-oh.

I have to get a colonoscopy next week. I was just reading the directions:

7:00 PM— Mix the entire bottle of MiraLAX in 62 ounces of a clear liquid. Mix until dissolved, then drink it all. YOU CAN EXPECT TO HAVE MULTIPLE BOWEL MOVEMENTS SOON AFTER. 

It's not easy getting kids to take laxatives...

But as this 1950s ad from Ex-Lax shows, there is a way!

"No wonder of the fellers in our crowd take Ex-Lax!"

Are you a "Silent Sufferer"?

This laxative ad is from the September, 1941 issue of LIFE magazine. I love the copy on item 2:

"Saraka [the laxative] forms a soft and jelly-like 'softage,' kind to tender tissues." 

I guess this is a good product for those who need "Softage"!

Old School Laxatives!

Up until about 1750, people who were "plugged up" drank Castor oil. That was the name of a liquid laxative that was extracted from the glands of a beaver (or Castor, in Latin).

So my question is this: 

Whose idea was it to drink liquids extracted from the glands of a beaver?!

(BTW, after the mid-1700s, it was discovered that the same laxative effect could be got from the oil produced by the seeds of Ricinus communis, which became known as the castor oil plant. Oh, and that photo is by Paul Stevenson.)