Yesterday's Malady: Immortalized by the Blues

I can't eat, I can't talk, Been drinkin' mean jake, Lord, now can't walk.
- the Allen Brothers, 1930

In addition to today's usual malady, I give you a malady from the past: Jake Leg.

"Jake Leg" is a toxic neuropathy which caused paralysis. In cases of partial paralysis, there was a characteristic limp - the "jake walk".

Jake leg was a major catastrophe of the 1930s, a direct result of the Prohibition. Originally a medicine, "Ginger Jake" skirted Prohibition laws at first. Later, adulteration with neurotoxic chemicals brought on the paralysis sung of in a number of blues songs of the 1930s.

If not for its memorialization by the Blues, Jake Leg might have dissappeared from the public consciousness altogether.