One constant for the treatment of childhood coughs was a thick, sticky medicine with a pungent smell and a strong taste. Always in dark brown glass bottles, these balsams give us the medicinal vocabulary for pungent and fabulous resins in describing scent. Even now the original formulas can be bought like Covonia's still in a brown bottle but many others have been repackaged; Weleda's are delightfully old-fashioned and the Lavender & Myrrh mouthwash from Neal's Yard is wonderfully efficacious.
