History Main / ThatOldTimePrescription

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While most medications are a mystery to most audiences, there are a few whose native source is more familiar. Willow bark as a precursor to aspirin, or bread mold as that of penicillin, are the usual examples; others, such as poppy extract for a sedative or foxglove extract for heart trouble, are more obscure, but still recognizable to viewers who take an interest.

Therefore, in order to show that a primitive healer, herbalist, or apothecary is genuinely skilled, not ignorant or a fraud, they're shown administering one of these (very) few recognizable RealLife proto-drugs to patients in need. Never mind that a historical physician of the era may not know about the medicine in question, or be capable of extracting the active substance from its raw state in the proper dosage (foxglove is helpful in small amounts for heart trouble; in large amounts it causes heart failure), or that another little-known remedy from the period might be safer and more effective: it's always the treatment [[SmallReferencePools audiences will recognize]] that gets used.

* Averted in ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland'': The heroes are in dire need of quinina, but there are no willows on the island. It causes [[spoiler:Nemo]] to finally abandon the pretense of his aid being coincidence or supernatural when he leaves a helpfully labeled box of the stuff inside their home.

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* ''Film/TheThirteenthWarrior'': Ibn requests water to wash his wound, but a knowledgeable Norse woman insists that it will fester if not cleaned with sterile urine. This is a historically accurate belief that survives as an urban legend to this day. Modern tests reveal that urine is not actually sterile and shouldn't be used as a disinfectant, at least when genuinely germ-free water is available. Mind you, at the time the movie is set in, if you don't have any way to boil the water, it's a [[CoolClearWater crapshoot...]]
* After the big fight in ''Film/SevenBridesForSevenBrothers'', Milly uses [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_hazel_(astringent) witch hazel extract]] to treat the wounds of the brothers.

* Referred to in Music/TheWhiteStripes' "Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine" from ''Music/{{Elephant}}''

* ''Literature/TheAnubisGates'' has a [[BodySurf body-surfing]] villain drinking poison right before jumping into a new body. When he does this to [[spoiler:Brendan Doyle]], the victim, realizing he's poisoned, devours several pieces of fireplace charcoal, thinking to himself that activated charcoal is used to treat strychnine poisoning. It works, and he survives, [[spoiler:only realizing afterwards that he is now in the body history recognizes as William Ashbless]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheFogottenCity'', one of the side-quests involves locating the city's apothecary in order to learn her remedy for rheumatism to help another character. The remedy turns out to be willow bark.

* When ''Webcomic/{{Digger}}'' is shot, her surgery and recovery take weeks and she gets temporarily addicted to poppy milk.

* In ''VideoGame/StardewValley'', eating ginger or drinking ginger ale will cure the "Nausea" status inflicted by Putrid Ghosts (which prevents using other consumables). Birdie on Ginger Island mentions this once you've completed her ChainOfDeals, but ginger is also commonly used for nausea in real life.

** She is also seen prescribing digitalis to a woman for a heart murmur. She also prescribes several things given to her by the Native Americans, much to the town's distrust and horror.

Therefore, in order to show that a primitive healer, herbalist, or apothecary is genuinely skilled, not ignorant or a fraud, they're shown administering one of these (very) few recognizable RealLife proto-drugs to patients in need. Never mind that an historical physician of the era may not know about the medicine in question, or be capable of extracting the active substance from its raw state in the proper dosage (foxglove is helpful in small amounts for heart trouble; in large amounts it causes heart failure), or that another little-known remedy from the period might be safer and more effective: it's always the treatment [[SmallReferencePools audiences will recognize]] that gets used.

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* In one of the Literature/LordDarcy stories, set in the present day but in an AlternateHistory where magic has been developed as a science (meaning, among other things, that medical science has not developed because healing magic makes it unnecessary), two wizards have a conversation about unlicensed healers who do things like treat wounds with moldy bread and heart trouble with "a tea brewed of foxglove". They regard these (real) cures as superstitions, since there's nothing in the laws of magic to justify them working.

* In Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/TheHallowedHunt'', Ingrey was given a pain-reliving medication made from poppies (among other things).

* Averted in ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland'': The heroes are in dire need of quinina, but there are no willows on the island. It causes [[spoiler:Nemo]] to finally abandon the pretense of his aid being coincidence or supernatural when he leaves a helpfully-labeled box of the stuff inside their home.

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** One character finally goes to fetch a witch, who takes her time to denounce the Church's persecution against her guild, claiming that all they do is curing people with completely natural remedies. Her remedy for the feverish is covering them in ''pig shit'', again under the "humor balance" theory of Medieval junk medicine, and she notes that she herself is healthy because [[ThePigPen she bathes often in it]]. Ironically, she is the one to achieve the highest curative rate in the episode (two of her three patients survive), but it's debatable if her efforts had any relation with that.

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** It is also revealed in Ennias' notes that they bathe and handwash frequently. Unsurprising for a race based off raccoons, but they also use ceremonial hand-washing basins and mix the water with "perfumes and distilled essence of spirits" (alcohol) to "kill humours of illness."

* Disney's ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}'' has Pocahontas give John Smith willow bark for the pain after he is shot in the side.

* In the ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' series it's mentioned that practically everybody knows about willow bark tea, even non-healers.[[note]]The [[DidDoTheResearch range of herbal knowledge]] by some characters averts this trope.[[/note]]