The Stanford World, home paper of a city in central Montana, carried an ad in 1918 for Tanlac, a “stomachic tonic” to ward off the Spanish flu. The laxative, sold locally at Harvey’s Drug Store, would help those who were “weak and rundown (who) become easy victims to widespread epidemic.” The tonic contained nearly 16% alcohol by volume, a bitter drug such as gentian, herbal extracts, licorice and wild cherry flavoring, and glycerin. Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS.
