Who remembers tincture of merthiolate?

My dad used to use merthiolate a lot. He was a wood pattern maker by trade so there were always splinters, sanding burns, etc. My mom, on the other hand, was convinced that hydrogen peroxide cured all ills (she was like the guy in My Big Fat Greek Wedding with the Windex).
 
Most anyone who grew up in the 1940s and 1950s knew about Merthiolate. I haven't seen it for a long time, probably considered lethal to human life today. My mother's favorite "wonder drug" was Bag Balm, which is still available. She used it on any and all wounds, rashes, and burns. It was a salve similar to Vaseline that dairy farmers used on sore cow and goat udders. It came in a cube-shaped steel can.

I have a can of Bag Balm in the shop, does wonders when your hands dry out from gas/carb cleaner/brake clean/paint thinnner or any other noxious liquid.
 
Born in 1960. Talk about flashbacks: "Monkeyblood!" Yikes!

Can we change the subject, please? LOL!
 
It may surprise many of you, but Merthiolate, Mercurochrome and Tincture of Iodine are all still available, contrary to what some have posted. Have you heard of "Google" by chance???????
 
Ray, oh-ya I remember that stuff. My dad was a big believer in I.P.A. for wound treatment. Scrub it down, pick any gunk out, and liberal doses of I.P.A. It lit ya up, but it worked and still does.
The hell with all those fancy creams and wonder drugs; pour enough I.P.A. on any wound, if you don't bleed out, you're going to make it.

I pour a lot of IPA down my throat and, yes, it lights me up. :)
 
All sorts of horrible things were commonplace years ago. How about rectal thermometers? Imagine if they were to break during use! Anyone remember X-ray machines in shoe stores? No protection of any kind for child or employee. Or forcing left-handed children to attempt to write with their right hand. Yes, I saw this.

Can any members come up with some others?

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

I remember all but the rectal thermometer, and it all happened to me. I probably got enough radiation to last my whole life from the shoe machines, and I should be left handed but when they made me write right handed, nobody has been able to read anything I've written since.

I was born in 1933, and I remember mercurochrome but not merthiolate. Before the Salk vaccine I remember being told not to play around the dust coming off the dirt road we lived on, as it might contain the Polio virus. Polio was a horrible scourge, and the world owes a debt of gratitude to Dr Salk.

Anyboyd remember citronella for keeping mosquitoes away?
 
My question is; and probably the better question who could ever forget it. Especially if you have ever had it used on you. In the summer time when we would go outside early in the morning barefooted and get all that dew up under the cracks of our toes and they would split open and hurt like fury but that stuff was way worse for burning.

I also remember Bismuth Violet which was almost as bad. We also had a yellow powder called BFI powders that was used to stop bleeding and it even worked reasonably well and was a best I remember fairly painless.
 
It may surprise many of you, but Merthiolate, Mercurochrome and Tincture of Iodine are all still available, contrary to what some have posted. Have you heard of "Google" by chance???????

Yes, sir. They can usually be found in the "Hispanic" medication section of your local drug store - at least in areas with a large Hispanic population. We called it monkey blood, too. Another home remedy I remember from when I was a kid was Percy Medicine. That was some nasty stuff for upset stomach. It is still available, too. Whenever we had diarrhea Mom would pick up some Infantol Pink. It was like Pepto Bismol, but it contained Opium. It is no longer available (for obvious reasons).
 
I remember taking a vaccine on a sugar cube

What was the vaccine they gave everyone when they smeared the stuff on your arm and repeatedly stabbed it with a needle??? It scabbed over and left a round indented scar in your skin when it finally healed. I had that done as a little kid, but it never "took" and I don't have the scar.
 
How about rectal thermometers?
Kaaskop49<br />
Shield #5103

When I was a child, I had one break in my ....


Papa
 
[quote name="arjay" post=138853046]I remember taking a vaccine on a sugar cube[/quote]<br />
<br />
What was the vaccine they gave everyone when they smeared the stuff on your arm and repeatedly stabbed it with a needle??? It scabbed over and left a round indented scar in your skin when it finally healed. I had that done as a little kid, but it never "took" and I don't have the scar.



BCG not bolt carrier group
But Bacillus Calmette-Guerin Vaccine
 
What was the vaccine they gave everyone when they smeared the stuff on your arm and repeatedly stabbed it with a needle??? It scabbed over and left a round indented scar in your skin when it finally healed. I had that done as a little kid, but it never "took" and I don't have the scar.


Small Pox..
Smallpox vaccines were given by way of multiple needle pricks into the skin that placed the LIVE sister virus therein. A scab formed and fell off, thus leaving the scar.



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1750'S HARDLY

I was talking about the 1970's- 1980's. We had live leaches for burn patients in the late 1980's, I'm sure they are still used today.
Lot's of things have "disappeared" from shelves, but were not actually banned at the time. As I recall we began seeing it in the early 80's - early 90's starting with things which were considered carcinogenic, today the stuff used in making meth is disappearing like pseudophed, even quinine in tonic water is harder to find. When the dopers figure out how to make meth from water, we will be in big trouble.
 
As long as we're sharing cherished childhood memories, anyone ever go under the dreaded low speed, no water dental drill, no novocaine of course.

I had to be peeled off the ceiling more than once as a young lad having a tooth filled. Mercury in the silver filling of course.
 
What was the vaccine they gave everyone when they smeared the stuff on your arm and repeatedly stabbed it with a needle??? It scabbed over and left a round indented scar in your skin when it finally healed. I had that done as a little kid, but it never "took" and I don't have the scar.

Smallpox. Those of us "of a certain age" all got vaxed for it. I think it was declared eradicated back in the 70s and nobody since has been vaccinated. There is some concern that it could be fairly easily weaponized. Imagine some terrorist walking thru an airport with a little spray bottle, spritzing all the escalator rails and bathroom door handles. :eek:
I remember merthiolate, but it was reserved for serious owies. We usually got the same treatment as the livestock. Liniment, drawing salve, Dr. Naylor's Blue-Coat and BagBalm. I still keep all of those around. During the summer I spend a lot of time in Chaco river sandals and my heels get so calloused they crack open. Slather on the BagBalm and sleep with a sock on and in the morning you're good to go.
I have a cousin who survived Polio. She walks with a limp but is otherwise healthy. Actually made it out of the iron lung. They lined us up at school and gave us the sugar cubes. No permission slips and nobody was allowed to decline. The second time around they used these scary looking bulk injectors like I still use on the animals. I remember asking the very mean looking nurse in the starchy stiff nurse hat "where are the sugar cubes??"
 
This is good stuff. It stinks because Ichthammol (ammonium bituminosulfonate) is made from tar sand goo. It's similar to road tar. I use it on the animals. Great for boils and eczema too.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Salve-Grooming-Aid-14/dp/B000HHQ67W/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1450620627&sr=8-12&keywords=black+drawing+salve"]Amazon.com : Drawing Salve Grooming Aid, 14 oz : Ichthammol Ointment : Pet Supplies@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41zLalmC3%2BL.@@AMEPARAM@@41zLalmC3%2BL[/ame]
 
We're talking the 1950s, aren't we, not the 1750s? Really odd, so many 20th Century advances in medicine: antibiotics, X-rays, and yet the treatments for everyday injuries when we were kids were so primeval.

BTW, anyone remember the polio scare and inoculation campaign of the 1950s? Absolutely terrifying, those pictures of people in iron lungs.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

Sure do!


I went to catholic grade school and 3 times we had to walk, well escorted by no nonsense nuns about a mile to the public high school, go to the gym and get the shots. Then walk back and go to school for the remainder of the day!

All mine were shots, the easier method came out after I had my series of shots.
 
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