Who remembers tincture of merthiolate?

[rjm6120]

I remember when I was a little kid back in the day, probably my biggest fear was the first aid treatment of childhood wounds i.e., cuts, scrapes, concrete rash, etc. The popular remedy in my house was the dreaded tincture of merthiolate, and when my dad uttered those words, in my mind he was sending me to the electric chair. That stuff burned like acid, and the resulting red badge of honor it left behind would be on my skin for days.
Thank God Mercurichrome came along----same red badge of honor, but no burn.
I know many of you remember this stuff!!

Ray

 

[NYlakesider]

I remember when I was a little kid back in the day, probably my biggest fear was the first aid treatment of childhood wounds i.e., cuts, scrapes, concrete rash, etc. The popular remedy in my house was the dreaded tincture of merthiolate, and when my dad uttered those words, in my mind he was sending me to the electric chair. That stuff burned like acid, and the resulting red badge of honor it left behind would be on my skin for days.
Thank God Mercurichrome came along----same red badge of honor, but no burn.
I know many of you remember this stuff!!

Ray

Sure do I was born in the forties and by the time I was 15 or so being I was susceptible to getting those kind of injuries I got it plenty. I felt like my mother got that stuff by the gallon.

 

[kaaskop49]

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

 

[kthom]

Yep. We called it "Monkey Blood". It sure marked the spot after the stinging stopped!

 

[straightshooter1]

Sure, I remember all of that. I don't know if they still market any of the things or not. I really haven't had the need to look for them.

I know Iodine is still available as the eye doc dripped a lot in my eye during the recent eye surgery to try to fix my torn retina.

Bob

 

[old bear]

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.

 

[NYlakesider]

My father was born at the same time a rather famous Cot .45 pistol came out, and he had some rather unusual things he did when growing up.

Staying on this subject my old man was no nonsense when it came time to fix his face that he cut when shaving with a old straight razor. He died at 95 and still used a straight razor.

His cure for stopping bleeding was to put some Formaldehyde on it. He always kept a container in the bathroom but thankfully my mother only used other products on me!

For those of you that do not know what that product dad used, it was also called embalming fluid and yes it was very good about stopping bleeding. (He was a long time undertaker)
How he lived as long as he did as that stuff is well considered a carcinogen, but he did.

 

[BC38]

Sure, I remember both of them.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Yep, growing up, my brother and I looked liked Christmas ornaments.

 

[msinc]

Yep...it killed germs the same way a flame thrower kills...by burning them to death!!!! It would sting him if you put it on a dragons skin.
But, it did work. I am still alive, probably owe it to that stuff as cut up and scraped up as I was in my childhood!!!!
Something else to think about...all these new germs {Mrsa, flesh eating bacteria, etc.} didn't seem to be around when that stuff was legal.

 

[JH1951]

Yep...it killed germs the same way a flame thrower kills...by burning them to death!!!! It would sting him if you put it on a dragons skin.
But, it did work. I am still alive, probably owe it to that stuff as cut up and scraped up as I was in my childhood!!!!
Something else to think about...all these new germs {Mrsa, flesh eating bacteria, etc.} didn't seem to be around when that stuff was legal.

Those few little microbes that did survive the painful red solution likely evolved into the resistant strains you reference above! Good ole Tincture of Iodine! I just discarded a bottle from my mother's medicine cabinet last week. Brought back all the thoughts mentioned above from the 1950's.

 

[JH1951]

The painful red solutions were then replaced by the colorless, odorless, painless, Zephiran Chloride. What a boon to us kids who would no longer be tortured to prevent infection. The red badge of courage was also then history. I remember wondering how it could possibly do any good without causing pain!

 

[Snapping Twig]

Merthiolate was mercury based IIRC.

Iodine came in clear, don'tcha know. Still have a bottle.

 

[reddogge]

I remember both plus the shoe x-rays and rectal thermometers. How many remember getting enemas when you had a fever? Real fun.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

Black Draught and Blisto-sol.......Blisto-sol would kill any foot/toe infection that came along......Burned like #&%^#*#!!!!......Black Draught taken internally was horrible tasting but not as bad as Three sixes 666 tonic.

 

[CordWood]

JH, I don' t think I would call it the "red badge of courage" in most of the incidents I was involved in. More like the red badge of stupidity! I pulled numerous bonehead stunts growing up.
Butch

 

[Comrad]

I can't believe I just Liked the enema post.

 

[pinduck]

My kids called it " Burn Paint ".

 

[kozmic]

That's the time in history when the phrase "the treatment is worse than the injury" was coined for sure.

I remember my mother had this old, seemingly bottomless, little round metal tin with a hand-written label on top that said "drawing salve". What the hell was that stuff? It was black as coal, stung like the dickens when applied and stunk like nothing found in nature.

It didn't "draw" the nasty gunk out of your injury. It scared it out of there! No need for a band-aid. Just clean it up a bit and slather some on the wound and walk away. It was waterproof, dust proof and probably 100 proof if I had to guess!

The phrase "if it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger" is probably the same vintage as well.

 

[msinc]

You can actually still buy drawing salve, but not too many people these days know what it is...the other half cant stand the smell. I don't know how they are still in business!!!

 

[chief38]

Remember it - - - - I STILL have a few bottles from the 50's laying around! They still sell it on Amazon I believe.

If I close my eyes I can still remember it burning when my mother applied it to a cut. YEOWWW!!!

 

[mcoe74]

I was a "very active" child and had the dreaded merthiolate/merchurichrome used on me many times. Still have a pain twinge thinking about it.

 

[arjay]

One of my sisters had permanently orange knees.
She's still a bull in a china shop [emoji1]

 

[hangnoose]

DRAWING SALVE

Was a coal tar based ointment used to draw out "stuff" for boils etc. It worked well as does most stuff with coal tar in it (dandruff shampoos mostly today). We used it as a main ingredient back in the day when pharmacies would make their own creams/ointments etc. it's called compounding & although still done today, it's not anywhere near as common. Not sure if it is still taught in Pharmacy school, any students/interns? I did high bar in school gymnastics & skin tears on your hands were common & could stop a practice. The best fix was tincture of merthiolate (the red fire) after the burn the skin would be dry enough to sand down the rough edges & do it again in app 24 hrs, or so.

 

[kaaskop49]

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

 

[arjay]

I remember taking a vaccine on a sugar cube

 

[sturtyboy]

They pulled all that mercury based stuff..but not too soon. That stuff was brutal.

Years ago, I had a co-worker pass out after getting the treatment to treat a deep, ugly cut on his finger. Man that was funny (to us, not to him)...mister tuff guy started gasping and rolling his eyes...down he went! Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
Took him to the emergency too.

Even funnier...his gigantic comb over came undone during the episode. Oh man!!! (I'm crying with laughter) He looked like a 60's bombshell with a half a hairdo.
Well, that stuff had a double purpose that day!

 

[Iggy]

Still got a bottle in the medicine cabinet.

 

[kaaskop49]

I remember taking a vaccine on a sugar cube

Sugar cube!!?? Not in my neck of the woods. Back then, the needles were so big they would do a dinosaur proud. I remember how thrilled we were when the Sabin vaccine came out: a little paper cup with a cherry flavored liquid. 'Bye Dr. Salk, it's been real!

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

P.S. Carter's Little Liver Pills, anyone?

 

[mjr]

I learned to apply merthiolate and a bandaid to my own little wounds about the time I graduated kindergarten. Yeah, it stung a little, but that was nothing compared to getting a shot of penicillin with the thick, dull hypodermic needles of the day.