The "Last" One

Knock on wood, I just returned from my last research trip. I spent three days in a medical school library in San Antonio, thumbing through medical journals from 1945-1965. Of course I found lots of good stuff that actually applies to my dissertation, but I also saw some pretty funny things. Oh, and I'm glad I'm not a doctor... all the detailed photos made me squeamish.

1) A cigarette ad from Phillip Morris (circa 1952) directed to physicians. "Ask yourself, which cigarette is most soothing to the throat?" Of course, it's PM. So apparently the main concern was the throat, not the lungs or any of the other gross maladies cigarettes can create.

2) I really hope this was said tongue-in-cheek, but I'm not sure. Here's an excerpt on the ideal doctor's wife:
“A doctor’s wife should be like a cigarette always ready to soothe, like an ashtray always ready at hand, sympathetic, with a keen ear for the telephone, discreet, and one who loves to be bounced out of sleep at night and left cold on one side. The ideal wife of a doctor could not last very long, she would die of internal combustion…” (from “The Doctor's Wife” by C.G. Learoyd, 1953)

I just realized both of these are about cigarettes. The 1950s had issues.