The other class of drug that would obviously be recognized as effective are psychoactives such as alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine.
By contrast I can't imagine how they could judge the efficacy of e.g. blood pressure medications back in those days, even though there are purely herbal treatments like aged garlic that certainly do have an effect.
ETA: This wiki article has a good overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_drugs_by_year_of_disco...
Another notable category of ancient drugs is laxatives.
The first synthetic drugs did not begin to appear until around the mid-1800s. In 1832 chloral hydrate was produced, which was the first synthetic sleeping drug, but it wasn't used clinically until 1869.
The smelling salts would definitely work. The oil of Wormwood probably worked to remove intestinal worms. A lot of the others I’m not sure passed the “first, do no harm” test.
The horn option does not seem sanitary.
You might have missed the year. This bit was a advice from 2000 years ago, where horn was probably way more cheaper, than glas or metal. And I think if it is polished, it might be not too bad, but glas or silver are of course way better.
> It may appear that the steep rise or pushed-up portion of the base was done to reduce the interior volume of the bottle. However, it was more likely done for some or all of the following reasons: for bottle strength enhancing, stability (i.e., the process helps form an even base and keeps the rough glass of some pontil scars out of the way so the bottle sits upright without wobbling), to provide a means of turning bottles in a stack using the fingers and thumb (a procedure still followed in traditional champagne manufacture), and/or possibly to trap content sedimentation (Jones 1971a; Boow 1991).
