Why did arsenic used to be a common remedy for most illnesses?

Question

It seems like back before modern medicine was a thing, prescribing arsenic for almost all ailments was all the rage. I’m going to assume that people weren’t just idiots in the past and that there was a reason for that.

Do small amounts of arsenic make you feel temporarily good or something like that? Is it a case of arsenic being useful for one specific illness and doctors then prescribing it for everything? Basically, why would they prescribe poison to people???

In: 71

Answer 1

I’m just picturing an old timey doctor shrugging, “What? He stopped coughing up blood didn’t he?”