I couldnt find anything on this, but it may have been asked before, i was watching a tv show in which antique experts go to the houses of ordinary people and make bids on their antiques, recently in a property on the isle of white an old pharmacutical book was found containing entries dated between 1896 and 1913 naming a number of important people of the time that were prescribed medication. At the beginning of the book was an entry made for Queen Victoria in which she was prescribed Belladonna to be diluted with i think it said cinnamen water (not 100% on that bit)
the suggestion was put forward on the show that belladonna would have been taken for pregnancy , firstly id never heard belladonna be used to cure morning sickness as was suggested but also of course the dates clearly don't stack up, queen victoria was far past morning sickess age.
has anyone heard of this or know what/why it would have been taken by QV?
Belladonna was an ingredient of the treatment - which included opiates - prescribed for Queen Victoria during childbirth to reduce pain and consciousness, called 'Twilight Sleep' as it produced a trance-like state. It was overtaken by "blessed chloroform" as Victoria described it, but that was only for her last two children, Leopold and Beatrice. Other uses of belladonna in medicine at the time were for the treatment of headaches, motion sickness, and menstrual symptoms. Queen Victoria indeed would have been well past menstrual and pregnancy symptoms by 1896, but may have been prescribed small, diluted doses of belladonna for headaches which she suffered from throughout her life as she was used to the drug. The use of belladonna had to be carefully controlled as it was highly toxic in higher concentrates, which is why it gradually fell out of use in the 20th century.
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