 Its ingredients were assembled out of the obsolete humoral philosophy and quasi-scientific reasoning of the Renaissance.Paregoric was used in various formulations for hundreds of years.Paregoric was a household remedy in the 18th and 19th centuries when it was widely used to control diarrhea in adults and children, as an expectorant and cough medicine, to calm fretful children, and to rub on the gums to counteract the pain from teething.