Snow White

Magical sleeping potions conjured up for the purposes of surgery, dentistry and childbirth seemed no less fanciful to distinguished 19th century doctors. The idea smacked of quackery. Enchanted happiness potions or soma-style pleasure drugs that leave all those who take them living happily ever after strike many contemporary medical men as fairy tales too. Perhaps they are right, and earthly suffering is eternal. But the era of post-genomic medicine may surprise us all.