Tag: Medicine

Cold medicine

LORELAI: So I guess the whole pudding thing was just a fluke, huh? Trying to get to know us, easing up on the rules, smudging that bottom line of yours. It was just some weird phase. What, you were on cold medicine last week or something?

In the US, many over the counter cold and flu medications contain dextromethorphan, a psychoactive substance which can produce euphoria or hallucinations when abused; they can also contain the opioid codeine which acts as a sedative. This isn’t the case in some other countries, where cold and flu medicines treat symptoms in a far less interesting manner.

Aneurysm

EMILY (on phone): I’m looking up aneurysm in our medical dictionary to see if I just had one.

An aneurysm is a bulge in the wall of a blood vessel. They can occur in the heart, abdomen, legs and kidneys, but people often associate them with an aneurysm of the brain, which can cause a severe stroke. Aneurysms are often fatal.

Hemlock and Arsenic

MAX: (to waitress) Do you have any hemlock back there? Arsenic, something quick?

Both potentially deadly poisons. The plant hemlock was used to execute the philosopher Socrates after he was found guilty of impiety. Arsenic was once a popular choice as a murder weapon because it is odourless and not easily detected, until a test for it was devised in the 19th century.