Bright-Eyed & Bushy-Tailed

This advert is famously painted on the gable end of a row of terraced houses on Lord Mayor's Walk in the middle of York.

For years I'd bemoaned the increasingly faded paint, and then the other day I happened to glance across riding to work and realised it has been freshly restored! I treated myself to leaving work a few hours early today - the weather was just a gift for the blip...

If you can be bothered to read on, a bit of pharmaceutical history...

At the turn of the 20th century, much was made of the health of the liver and its importance for general well-being. Also that "keeping regular" with laxatives helped keep the lver in its prime! Charles Forde's "Bile Beans" were first marketed in 1899 and contained various ingredients. In the end they were withdrawn due to some concern about the safety of the laxative constituent. Actually more likely the company couldn't prove they had any efficacy so weren't granted a product licence.

Even more interesting (OK, for many years I worked on a liver unit, so a bit geeky about this!) was another product of the era - "Carter's Little Liver Pills" (first marketed in America in 1888). They contained phenolphthalein as a laxative, which was quite potent and actually is known to cause liver damage! The FDA in America required that the company remove the word "liver" (and the phenolphthalein!) so they were marketed as "Carter's Little Pills" until they ceased to be sold in the 1960s.

And all because of the blip...
P.S. Has been blipped a few times before, but with the cruddy old paint.
P.P.S. Health notice - this spiel is google and wiki-free... ;-)