Treatment of sickness in pioneer days

[Wild Bill]

When people ate off of pewter plates, tomatoes were poisonous. The pewter had a chemical reaction with the tomato acids and became poisonous. There was a story, the Plot to kill George Washington, that had that theme. A British spy was to kill GW by feeding him tomatoes. The next day there was GW as fit as a fiddle. The spy reported to his CO that he could not understand what had happened. GW ate every last tomato on his plate. The joke is of course that GW ate off of fine China and there was no chemical reaction.

That's the tale. I also sell swamp land in Arizona and from my front porch you can see the sea. BTW students loved my lectures in history class.