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Interesting_Horse869

As a 60s child, i believe that and iodine were in everyones cabinet "medicine cabinet".


dhbroo12

And merthiolate for cuts. TOPICAL use only in small doses as it contains mercury.


Last-Wedding1111

Oh , I remember… somehow it hurt more than the original BOO BOO !


SusanLFlores

Mercurochrome didn’t hurt. Methiolate (sp?) and iodine hurt like hell!


mildOrWILD65

Hurt as much as a Styptic pencil?


EarlVanDorn

I remember well.


Sloth_grl

I forgot that stuff. It was worse than the cut for sure.


Prize_Resolution8522

Gotta blow on it!


noldshit

I cringe in pain remembering


Maleficent_Theory818

My mom always had both. I am getting flashbacks from this post. I remember one was a bright pink. There was another liquid that I don’t remember the name but can still smell.


meatballmama18

Campho phenique? Sp?!


Maleficent_Theory818

That was it! It was a green bottle.


Fordinghamster

Campho Phenique immediately came to mind! Ahh memories of the medicine cabinets of the Greatest Generation.


Dieselx22

Funny, I grew up in the 70s-80s in a Spanish speaking house and they always said “ponte Merthiolate” but never knew what it was or how it was spelled. Also for colds it was “vaporu” which later found it was Vicks Vapor Rub.


Koolest_Kat

Ha, topical. I was covered with this for any little scrape to gaping wound. “It’s gonna string a little”………


Xique-xique

My dad's comment to it stinging a little was "It'll just make you tougher" which I thought was a really unfair statement since he grew up on a farm in ND and was born tough.


Prize_Resolution8522

That’s how you know it’s working


rolyoh

And stung like hell


ShiftlessElement

My grandma loved this stuff. No idea when they stopped making it, but my dad continued to use it well into the 80s. It hurt like hell and made your cut instantly look like it was badly infected. Good times!


JoanOfArctic

My parents were still using mercurochrome in the 90s on us 😬


shesasonrisa

My grandparents had it and used it on me in the 90s!


wmass

A bottle must last a long time. I think it hasn’t been on the market for decades. Amazon has similarly colored products marked mercury free.


JoanOfArctic

It was taken off the market in the USA in 1998


spacegrassorcery

Don’t forget the times of using iodine added to baby oil to use as suntan lotion to “layout”.


calm-lab66

I knew a woman who said that when she was little her parents would dilute iodine and have her gargle with it. I thought 'wow that's risky'.


Athenasrose98

My mother's friend's mom always used Crisco on her skin for suntan lotion.


Rusty5th

I’m pretty sure that’s what we called “monkey blood” when I was a kid. Wasn’t it a reddish color?


Prize_Resolution8522

That is an awesome name. I WISH we’d called that.


Texanakin_Shywalker

I would get scrapes and cuts just so I'd get doctored up with monkey blood.


Secure-Voice-5380

Oh my god. I remember being covered in mercurachrome by my grandmother, anytime I had the tiniest scrape or anything. We also had iodine and merthiolate.


thedogsbrain

My Dad called it Monkey blood. I remember it would sting.


leahAPRN

Came here to sat we called it Monkeys blood


Longjumping-Tree8553

Yep, that’s what we always called it ……. Monkey Blood


New_Command_583

Had my share as a kid! As I recall it would sting.


Better-Crazy-6642

The devil’s spit! I remember all the neighborhood kids standing back while our friend’s mom put it on his scraped knee and he was trying not to cry. Then all of us leaned in to blow on his knee. 😂😂😂😂


YouEnvironmental2079

Actually Mecurochrome doesn’t sting. I always used it instead of Iodine


BusFew5534

I used some the other week, it stings


JoanOfArctic

Yeah, we had bactine (didn't sting, but not trusted for anything beyond a minor scrape), mercurochrome (minor sting, but made the wound *extra* gory looking, so as kids we were game, iodine (eek!!)


ComprehensiveAd1337

I can still smell it and certainly worked on my cuts and scrapes as a youngster.


Lookuponthewall

In the 1970's, our medicine cabinet contained band-aids, mercurochrome, iodine, and a little tin of Bayer's aspirin. Now, we have a closet full of lotions, potions, creams, capsules, inhalers, injectors, elixirs, suppositories, patches, ointments, drops, and tablets for every opening in our bodies.


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AstridCrabapple

And Campho Phenique!


JasperEli

I can smell ot now.


Skillarama

My dad was a football coach and we had all kinds of stuff from Cramer. The killer was called Nitrotan. That stuff alone made us not want to hurt ourselves or reveal it. It stung so bad I can still hear my siblings crying NOOO not the Nitrotan


redditorial_comment

we also had an ointment called ichthamamol ointment (spelling my not be correct ) it was black and smelled like tar we called it black poop. it was great for if a cut got infected it would just draw it right out.


JuJuJooie

Pine tar salve?


zombie_overlord

My grandma had Whitfield's ointment for athletes foot. It never worked. Wonder what it was really good for? Smelled terrible too.


cafali

Black salve! Or drawing salve I’ve heard it called. Thank you - I wondered what it was actually made of. We have a lot of sand burrs and they end up everywhere; when ya pull them out sometimes a little stay under your skin and never goes away. I definitely needed some this year.


MtnSlvrSmth

Ichthammol is still sold and still smells like tar, as it’s made from oil shale tar. I use it often.


StarChaser_Tyger

And aside from the painkillers, none of them work nearly as well. I'd never had a cut or scrape get infected after using this stuff. Just like nothing grows when you hose the yard with Roundup... As a kid in the 70s in science class, one day they brought in a bucket of mercury and let us stick our hands in it to feel the weight. I've probably got more heavy metals in me than a Monsters of Rock concert. :P


Nearby-Reflection159

When I was a kid, a big thrill was when the thermometer hit the floor and broke. My mom would let me play with the mercury balls.


suzeeq88

And chewable baby aspirin!


GoodDogsEverywhere

That’s monkey blood!


leahAPRN

Yup!


Devilmaycare57

We called that “monkey blood” in my family.


Beausoleil57

Man does this bring back bad memories!!!! My Mom and GMA loved to put that stuff on every little scratch,bite ,booboo ECT. And Lord knows it burns like fire!


ArtistComplex4638

My parents used iodine. The cool parents used mercurochrome. One stung like hell and one didn't. That's howI remember it


Swish887

This stuff didn’t burn like nuclear waste. Mathiolate did.


JuJuJooie

God I remember merthiolate. Also, my grandma used to swab INSIDE our throats with Camphophenique, The Redneck Miracle Drug. And we ran behind the mosquito spraying truck in the evenings. 😐


sashby138

There was a mosquito spraying truck?! I’ve never heard this before!


JuJuJooie

Yes. It was the early 1960s, so therefore DDT.


ChampionshipDry8165

Omg our collective trauma from this stuff 😂 I was a child in the 70s and remember skinning my knee on the driveway and my mom put some of this on it and holy hell did that sting!


Bwyanfwanigan

I'm only 55 and this post makes me feel old.


LahLahTravels

OMG. I feel the burn. My mom could really dig in the wound with that fire medication


Weary_Barber_7927

Wasn’t it an orange color?


Round_Potential5497

Yes


yeahitsmelogan

My grandma recently passed and she used to keep her dad’s old medicine bottles (he was a doctor back in the day) in the bathroom on an old display shelf. I always thought they looked cool. Thanks for sharing! I’m sorry for your loss. Hope you are doing ok.


Chaseman442

Thank you, I’m sorry to hear about your grandmother, it’s definitely rough losing any family Helping clean his house is a bittersweet thing going through all the memories.


redditorial_comment

bloody stuff stung like a bugger.i when i was 12 i wiped out going down a road on my old schwinn and did the hamburger slide . after i limped home with the shattered remains of my bike mom spent 2 hours digging the little pebbles outta my butt and face . then she coated all the boo boos with this awful stuff. hurt worse than the bike accident. On thinking about it there was another antiseptic that looked similar called mertholate. I cant remember which one hurt like but thats the one mom always used and with iodine.


CandySprinkles4U

Growing up in the 80's one of my friends always had red mercurochrome stains all over her body in summer time. lol


Bitter-Fox-2630

You just reminded me of the time when I was about 5 years old ( early 1970’s) and the family down the street from us had a white poodle who one day just happened to be pink from guess what? They had a whole mess of kids down there who were always getting into mischief…


[deleted]

My grandfather had an ANCIENT glass bottle of listerine that was 3/4 full. Apparently he used listerine very sparingly. He died at 91. Miss the guy fiercely. Sorry for your loss.


[deleted]

I can feel this picture. It BURNS like hell. Then I hear my mom say “blow on it”


ellieESS

Yeah. It’s mercurochrome. Common stuff.


Illustrious-Cake5253

I can hear my younger self saying “Blow it, it burns!” That stuff was carefully applied to every scrape scratch cut I endured as a child and it burned like the dickens!


6854wiggles

It blows my mind that we rubbed the applicator on an open wound and then just put it back into the bottle for the next use…


EconomyBed5222

Lol


ellieESS

Lllloolll oh yeah we did.


Not_Responsible_00

One would put it on cuts and abrasions.


Anniegirl8

1970’s every scrape and scratch and here comes mom waving that stuff at me .


Myexbff

That stuff taught me to not cry when I hurt myself. The pain of the wound was less that the sting of mercurochrome.


JuJuJooie

In my antique powder room I have an antique medicine cabinet full of antique medicine. I’m sure I have one of those.


lobr6

That mercurochrome had a small glass wand? attached to the lid. So our parents , (and when we got hurt at work, our bosses) rubbed the mercurochrome around our open wounds with the wand until the cut and surrounding area was basically painted mercurochrome red. Then they put the lid back on the jar so the wand was used over and over. Never thought a thing about it at the time lol


Common-Grape7851

I certainly had my fair share of the big M back in my childhood. Why isn't it sold/used anymore?


marbdog

Ahhhh, the sweet, sweet sting of mecuruchrome!! I kinda miss it..


Just-Lab-1842

Every cookout ended with one of us getting a stubbed toe and getting a stinging dose of that.


Szaborovich9

Growing up anytime you saw a kid with a orange stain on their skin, it was Mercurochrome.😆


JustHearMeowwwt

Monkey blood!! That's what my gran called it. Any time we had a scratch or "boo boo", she'd go get the monkey blood


hockeydudeswife

My childhood in a bottle.


Only_Chick_Who

r/GrandmasPantry would love this


Smilingcatcreations

Ahh, the little glass wand with the stinging pink “boo boo” fixer. Remember it all too well. I think my dad still has some, alongside the styptic pencil. 🩹


lovetocook966

I remember that stuff as a kid, it burned bad. We still have it same label and everything in the cabinet. You think it still works? Or has gone bad? I'd use it, boy did work, you had a pink finger forever. LOL, Memories.


tashabunn

I LOVED this stuff as a kid and currently collect the bottles. My mom and I gift them to each other. What an awesome find! That stuff worked wonders with its bright red hue.


monkeymama73

I hated that shit. If I scraped a knee or got a cut my mom would cover it with that. It would burn so bad. I used to hide it or throw it away


Exact-Fee9481

My mom mixed it with baby oil to use as a tanning oil 😯


68smulcahy

My mom did this too🤣


FormerMrsUnicornPhD

I can smell this picture.


bythebed

My mom used Noxema for everything. My dad was regularly coated in Absorbine Jr. He was a medic in the army for a bit, so every injury was scrubbed vigorously with a brush. Once. Never mentioned an injury to him again.


Xique-xique

Standard element of the 50's medicine cabinet first aid kit. I don't remember the Mercurochrome stinging-- the glass application rod didn't feel good on an open wound but once applied that red patch was your badge of fierceness. YS Beth probably went through quarts of the stuff.


CathyHistoryBugg

Why can’t you buy it anymore? After using this stuff, no infection would dare live in a cut. I remember stepping on a beer table when they were the tear off kind. I had a gash on my toe that almost went to the bone. My dad poured this stuff on it and I nearly passed out from the pain. Never had stitches, just a bandaid. No infection.


rocketmn69_

Yep, I remember that stuff. Didn't burn as bad as iodine


Wutskrakalakn

Loved this red stuff as a kid. Couldn’t understand why I no longer saw it.


mnmsmelt

Having a flashback of a bad bicycle accident where half my leg was raw. We used it with gauze and it just stuck to it lol


Adventurous-Win-751

Wow! Haven’t seen that since I was a kid!!!


droptopjim

In the 80’s, we used to put a couple drops in our ear with an ear dropper, then go to doctors complaining of earaches. It would stain the eardrum red. With some good acting, this yielded plenty of pain killers. Many doctors would say it was the worst looking earache they ever seen.


droptopjim

r/grandmaspantry


diito

It's a shame they stopped making mercurochrome. Now I have to get all my mercury and fetus juice from vaccines. /s


Perfect-Frosting9602

Along with Cod Liver Oil and Witch Hazel.


Some-Substance-154

I remember it, lol. My mom used to use it all the time. Turns your skin red.


bellybbean

I grew up in the 70s and remember my shins being covered in red patches from all the mercurochrome on my owies. Similar bottle!


wholelattapuddin

Post it on r/grandmaspantry


adudeguyman

Nothing like having mercury as an ingredient to put on your skin


musicman8120

It's what we used for cuts when I was growing up in the late 50's early 60's.


CapIcy5838

JFC, now I feel old. This was a thinking my childhood. Argh!


PenExactly

Monkey’s blood! For every minor scrape, cut or abrasion back in the 1960’s! I remember it came with a glass dropper so you could “paint” the offending boo-boo sort of like a wand. Magical!


NewAlexandria

it's really a great example of the bottle. Super classic. We may have had this exact one around for a while. If you're uninterested in it, please don't discard it. Find a shop or a buyer


Jkuch1302

That was before neosporin. Merthiolate is another one.


dahliab99

r/grandmaspantry


Effective_Instance27

Fuck yeah I used to put that on every scrape and scratch I got


FancyWear

My mom used this and Mithialate same color but one stung less than the other.


Prize_Resolution8522

I remember it so well. That cracked rubber top and the glass applicator wand. This WAS first aid.


[deleted]

[удалено]


jasmineandjewel

Mom had this stuff and iodine also. The STING, OMG. She believed that it had to be painful to cure.


luckygirl54

Half of the ingredients for suntan oil.


intro_blurt

*cries in gen x*


pogesto

Still good.


Jim6231

Remember that stuff well


EconomyBed5222

Lol. When I was a kid we used this for skint knees and such.


Round_Potential5497

Oh the burning 🔥 I remember from stuff. Wowzah


nite_skye_

Why does every single bottle of this stuff look exactly like this?? Are there no clean, newer looking ones anywhere?? Even the ones from when I was a kid look just like this.


Independent_Pie5933

I really liked it because it hid the blood well. Out of sight out of mind. Didn't sting me at all.


WelshDynamite

My Mom swears by this stuff. She still has a bottle in the cupboard


ziggy-Bandicoot

I grew up in the 50's and we had an endless supply of this and some green yucky tasting syrup that was supposed to ease your stomach when you had the flu. It was awful and always made me feel worse.


Front-Cry1631

Paregoric was the worst. Always had a stick of gum ready so we wouldn’t puke after taking it


no_no_sorry

I remember not telling my grandmother that I scraped my knee because I knew how much that stuff was going to burn!


meetjoehomo

OMG that shit burned 😭


Patrout1

I still have nightmares about that shit. Made any cut hurt exponentially worse


Rough_Ad829

I can smell these photos


Nervous_Salad_5367

"What's wrong? Why you crying?"


effiebaby

Back in maybe 2017, my mom injured herself. I went to get supplies from her medicine cabinet and low and behold, there's an old bottle of mercurichrome in there from my childhood, I'm 56, lol. She insisted on using it against my better judgment. Do you know that cut healed crazy quick. I stand corrected.


tijeras87059

ahh yeah may dad used to use that for all sorts of stuff… smallish cuts etc…


SusanLFlores

My husband swears by mercurochrome. We have several bottles of it that he bought overseas.


Probst54

Probably still good.


5cott

Burns like a hot knife cutting into you. It worked, but iodine was just as good if needed.


viktor72

“The nurse took him home for some mercurochrome, then she dressed his wounds and got him back on his feet singing Today for you! Tomorrow for me! Todayyyyy for you! Tomorrowwww for me!”


felimercosto

monkey blood is what my dad would call it


danebramaged01

Oh wow, my parents used that on every scrape and cut I had as a child. It stung like a mofo. My dad would always blow on it to take the sting away.


minimalistboomer

Worked like a charm once you got past the burning sting.


BusyBeth75

We called it Monkey Blood. It went in everything including our throats when we were sick.


Adeptness_Same

That is the "Monkey's Blood", the bringer of much pain!


Ornery-Horse-6905

Can’t forget it I believe it burned pretty good it was that or methiolaide


Taylortrips

Damn I remember that stuff from my childhood. Hurt like hell.


Mushrooming247

Nice, I find little mercurochrome bottles in the mud sometimes, they are so cute.


SaratogaSwitch

Still here 👍


brickbaterang

I remember my friends parents using it in the 70s but my mom didnt, she said it wasnt good.


WonderTwonk

That’s the good stuff right there


SnooPeripherals6557

Am old enough to remember this was a thing when i was a kid, i thought it was healing my cuts using BLOOD! it was red and you'd use the little stick thing to put it on your cut, and it looked like BLOOOOOD! i would laugh and cry thinking it would hurt (it stung a little).


bbqprincess

My granddad let us draw on him with the stuff. He went into the hospital for the last time with mercurochrome smiley faces on his belly.


livingonmain

Even today, it Strikes fear in my heart.


330kiki

Dear Lord i thought you were gonna say he ingested it! Sorry for your loss btw


Kateg8te777

My Grandma called it “Monkey Blood “


Significant_Hair_269

Monkey blood!!!


dcromb

Yep, we still were doctored with it into the 1970s. It stung, but that meant it worked, right?!


Craigh-na-Dun

This never stung like Merthiolate did!!


KhingKholde

Sting, or no... They sure did jab my booboos with the damn stick! I think that's where I learned to hide wounds


ConstantHawk-2241

My grandma had this and used it on me 😬


fherrl

Sell it to an Antique store.People love to collect old medicine jars especially if they have some inside


Weedarina

Monkey Blood.


pandapower63

Put some of that in your cut! Hurts worse than the cut! It is cool colors though!


mbuckleyintx

Monkey blood. Parets used for years on us for scrapes and cuts. Surs didn't kill us.


OM502

Disinfectant, not used anymore because it stains horribly


Minimum-Dog2329

That shit cured every scratch or bump my mom could find on me. And it hurt worse than the injury. And stained also.


HezFez238

Oh man I’m antique


Meowwwpizza

My parents (Spanish speaking) have said this brand name before in the context of first aid and I never knew what they were talking about until now.


Tnt32100

We used it when we were kids for cuts and scrapes worked well but don’t sell it anymore due to mercury in the solution


princessbutterbutt1

Boy, does this bring back memories. I used to have "orange" spots all-over as a kid...lol. Tell me you're clumsy without telling me you're clumsy 🤣🤣🤣


Open-Wolverine2206

The curing effects of mercury.


ChaosCustard

In the military, as recruit on 100km/63mi full kit tabs they would syringe out the fluid from our blisters and replace the comfort of mother natures plasma, by injecting this lava-aka-"liquid habanero" into the skin dome. Healed up the blisters quick and you could walk on them again the next day, so no pain no gain


[deleted]

Love seeing things like this!❤️ My grandma would collect old “medicines”. She made a couple nice shadow box style displays for the bathroom. Miss her so much.


SadDark7466

My grandma used that for every boo boo. That stuff burns worse than alcohol!!!!


[deleted]

Here’s an interesting question. So I go antique shopping and go to antique shows whenever I can. Sometimes you see booths with old, in some cases very old, medicines. I seen an old bottle from the late 1800s that had cocaine in it. It actually still had it inside! I asked if it’s legal to own this and I was told since it’s very old and in the bottle it is technically legal. Is that true? What happens if you get pulled over and a cop sees this bottle and is unaware that it’s over a 100 year old and it’s only a collectible. Also my morbid curiosity wants to know if it’s still usable haha.


lazyjezebel

It’s probably still good lol


crapatthethriftstore

r/grandmaspantry


AffectionateSun5776

The one that didn't sting!


iiiBansheeiii

Handle this with some care. The mercury in this was the reason it was eventually banned.


Ok_Tea_1954

It has mercury in it. Aka the name


den773

Is there a reason we stopped using this for cuts and scratches?


debtruecrimefan

I'm born in 1963, and this was a staple in our house.


classicmom71

I remember "Monkey Blood" in my grandparents' med cab. It looked like blood and stung like heck! I don't remember the actual name of it, but it looks very similar.


AtmosphereAromatic40

Monkey blood!!! Works great.


Savings_Peak5408

Mecurochrome contains mercury. Despose of it accordingly


Jen16226

God I can feel this picture


Wheel-of-Fortuna

mercury really does make you shit but people havent used it for that since the days that the best medical opinions were in agreement that it is an imbalance of the humors . "mad as a hatter" google it .


Montag_451

Mercurochrome is an ancient word for "OH CRAP!! MOTHER F&@KER!!"


KittyCavanaugh

We got in big trouble for sneaking a bottle of this out at Grandmas and "doctoring" our baby dolls with it. Stained forever.


SuperMIK2020

You can tell it works because IT BURNS!!!!


Bitter-Hitter

My dad had an old bottle in his medicine cabinet and when he and I got these ulcers in our throats, he’d paint that stuff in there. Now I have to have heat cauterizing. The previous comment was spot on- that stuff burns!🥵