1911 Cures for Hiccups

Ah, who would be without an outdated medical encyclopedia?

Here's how you cure hiccups in 1911 - although as the Medical Adviser* puts it, there are many recommended cures 'none of which are often any use'. You can:
 - hold your breath and count to a hundred
 - apply heat to the back of the neck
 - take an emetic to produce vomiting (surely a worse symptom than a hiccup?)
 - inhale chloroform (not without medical advice though as, he acknowledges, chloroform is dangerous stuff)
 - take potassium bromide (now withdrawn for use on humans - it's toxic - but still used to treat epilepsy in dogs - Wikipedia)

I'm glad we have moved on from chloroform, bromides and vomiting (and would like to emphasise to anyone reading this that it is seriously out of date advice - don't take it.) NHS Direct agrees only about holding your breath and has several new suggestions for cures that include eating granulated sugar.

We've moved on, but we've still not cured hiccups.


*(of the Sunday Chronicle, as quoted in 1000 Medical Hints - the care of the body in health and disease, 1911)