antifogmatic: an alcoholic drink

Antifogmatics were popular in the nineteenth century. They were drinks taken "for medicinal purposes," on the pretext that they protected against the unhealthy effects of fog. Although the term antifogmatic was meant as a joke, people of the time tended to feel that guzzling plain unadulterated water was bad for your health. They regarded liquor both as nourishment and as a tonic for whatever ailed you. Soldiers received daily rum or whiskey rations along with their bread and cheese. Americans of the time knocked back nearly four gallons of hard liquor a year per capita, well over the amount that modern citizens consume.