> 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).
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.
E.G: Thyme has well known antimicrobial properties and thymol is (or at least was) a component of commercial mouthwash.
Even when we don't make drugs out of the plant itself, it could have been used for the properties we know about today.
E.G: common vervain is known to have diuretic properties, so it's not a long shot to think it has been used for this particular reason at some point. Today we use diuretic to treat heart failure, liver cirrhosis, or hypertension. While they may not have had any way to catalog all this, it seems unlikely nobody ever associated the consumption of a lot of diuretic with people getting better for one reason or another.
People were not dumb, and there were a lot of them, for a long time. They likely tried a lot of combinations of things, on purpose or by accident.
And if you want some anecdata, I've used plenty of preparations from that text for nausea, fever, menstrual cramps (not mine, clearly), poor clotting, sinus congestion, and likely some things that are slipping my mind.
Plants are where we get a lot of medicines from, and while modern pharmaceutical companies may prefer that information not get spread around (it's basically the whole reason we don't have a widespread practice of western medical herbalism in the US), but the fact remains that if you know how to get the medicine out of the plant, it's still totally possible to do so.
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.
