10 Disturbing History Facts They Don't Teach You In School

Due to a vast array of different diseases, diarrhoea was an unfortunate fact of life for many living in the 18th and 19th century. One way to help solve this problem came from an unlikely source: opium.

Opium was found to cause constipation in those who had taken it, so it provided a perfect opportunity to quell the scourge down below. Once people caught wind of this fact, the demand for opium skyrocketed. Everyone in the family would be given their fair share of opium, from elderly relatives to even very small children.

This is the reason why opium became so profitable, so quickly, and why many people got hooked on the drug. Although diarrhoea is often treated as a joke today, it actually killed millions of people in the past and still does today in some countries.

Addiction was an unfortunate side effect of this treatment.

This is similar to why children used to be given alcoholic beverages, such as ales, from an incredibly young age in the past. The medical benefits (such as killing the germs in the water with alcohol), just greatly outweighed the health detriments (at least in the short-term).

As an extra fact, many current diarrhoea relief tablets still work on this principle, with many being made of opiates.