Watching Peaky Blinders. One of the main characters told someone to stop drinking a liquid meant to calm him down. He said it was the same thing that was given to the British soldiers in the trenches to stop them masturbating.
Is there any truth in this? Was anything given to British soldiers?
It’s an oft-told rumor that started in WWI and has carried on since.
Potassium bromide is a:
is a salt, widely used as an anticonvulsant and a sedative in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with over-the-counter use extending to 1975 in the US...Potassium bromide is used as a veterinary drug, as an antiepileptic medication for dogs.
Alan Metcalf references this rumor in his book Predicting New Words - The Secrets of Their Success.
The legend carries on to the present where rumors circulate amongst new Service Members that military food is laced with saltpeter (potassium nitrate) to achieve the same results.
Source: Richard E. Jones & Kristin H. López (2006). Human Reproductive Biology, Third Edition
But long story short, it is an unlikely false rumor perpetrated by the fact that when young men are in a high intensity environment, their libido may drop or even cease to exist. It’s a rumor that has endured over a century and I imagine will continue into the future.