at some point before it became banned it just kinda went out of style.

I also remember baths with Phiso-Hex, until they discovered that hexacholorophene, or whatever that stuff was, was toxic.

Lotsa stuff back then was common until they discovered it kills you.

When we were kids, we always hoped Mom would get that out instead of the merthiolate, which burned. They were both in square bottles with rubber stoppers and glass applicators. I haven't thought about that stuff in years.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Merthiolate was awful stuff to a kid.

Good times...

I thought it just went out of style.

The teacher'd grab your arm and that bottle and spray till it dripped if you cut yourself on something.

I also remember the day one of my classmates cut off the tip of his thumb. You couldn't see the red of the blood for all the mercurochrome that got sprayed....

and elbows and a myriad of small injuries were 'painted' with mecurochrome in our house. If they brought out the iodine, it was more serious. Mecurochrome went on dark pink/red and iodine was yellowish orange and stung like crazy. If my dad was applying the medicine he'd blow on the injury and add a smiley face to make it hurt less! He was also the one to introduce us to the broken thermometer-ball of mercury trick. I remember him 'polishing' a dime with it. Considering that we weren't a family to wash our hands constantly and seemed to put fingers in our mouths on a regular basis... (does anyone remember puffing out your cheek with a finger in your mouth, and making a popping sound?)

first the Mercurochrome, then the Band-Aid.

... who would give us little drops of mercury to play with. Man you could really shine up a Mercury Dime with that stuff, although it would quickly tarnish.

in the '70s, the first aid kits came with little glass vials of red liquid. I assume that was mercurochrome. I also remember my parents having it in the medicine cabinet.

I dreaded "the red medicine" more than the pain from any injury.

I can even remember exactly how it smelled.

And I also remember playing with blobs of mercury. Cool stuff.

What was that crap that my Mom made my take when I had an upset stomach? The stuff that made me run away like mad?

on edit: CASTORIA UGHHHHH

You could always tell who'd had a bike wipe-out on gravel by how much red was scattered on their person.

Thanks!

My dad was a pharmacist and he would let me roll a ball of it around in my had. This was in the early '70s, mind you. I only did it a couple times, it wasn't an everyday thing....

Back in the late 50s-early 60s, washing machine lids had switches to automatically cut the power when the lid was lifted, which used a blob of mercury to break the connection. Those switches would often wear out. Break the end off the glass tube, and you had 10x the mercury in a thermometer. I can remember several occasions when I had a pill bottle at least half full of mercury-it amazed me how heavy it was. My dad told me it was poisonous so we would always wash our hands after we played with it, but we should all be dead and the house we lived in at the time should probably be on the EPA super-fund cleanup list.

Yup. Played with the mercury droplets, too.

Some other stand bys: Milk of Magnesia, Cod Liver Oil, liquid Lysol

Guess I'd better get rid of the bottle I have. Yep, played with mercury, too.

Took a few days before all the color washed out.

I also remember the silver bead from the thermometer sliding back and forth in the bathroom sink before it disappeared down the drain.

We laughed.

Am I color challenged? I seem to be the only person to remember Mercurochrome being a sickly shade of orange. Maroon in the bottle, orange on the skin.

seemed every kid I knew was painted orange at one time or the other.

merthiolate.

My mom used both. I don't know if there's any difference, but when I saw the merthiolate bottle come out for a cut or scrape, I would cry.

That shit HURT.

Merchurochrome, not so much.

Then she started using Unguentine. Came in a red squirt bottle shaped like a fire extinguisher. That stuff didn't hurt much at all.

of remembering stuff from our youth...

Was anybody ever given a mixture of paregoric in water with a bit of sugar?

My father was a big fan of drugging us when we couldn't/wouldn't go to sleep at night for whatever reason.

I can still taste it, 50+ years later.

I think this was the stuff, either this or iodine, we used to pour a small amount in an entire bottle of baby oil and mix up, used it as a tanning oil, what were we thinking back in those days

Do you suppose....?

Mercurochrome didn't sting.
Merthiolate burned like a summich!

I not only remember it I used it quite often being accident prone and all.... wow you just took me for a ride in the wayback machine....

I used to begin crying and yelling whenever the bottle appeared after I fell. The scrape was never worse than having it smeared with that shit. It stung like hell.

And yeah...between that, unsafe playground equipment, no seat belts, no bike helmets, and (my all-time favorite) JARTS, it's a wonder we made it out of childhood in one piece.

those things itched so bad we'd rip our skin open tearing at them.
I can't remember if the mercurochrome helped or not.
Never heard it was banned, but I sure would have voted to ban it if I could have.

sure wish my mother would have used it when I was young.

the three red germ killers my parents used to treat cuts and scrapes that we kids got in the 40s and even in the 50s. All of these substances burned like hell.

Mom would always get us to sit still when she had to perform a little first-aid by telling us that this was "the good stuff". And it did hurt a lot less than the dreaded Iodine.

In regards to mercury globs - oh yeah

I remember when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. I don't remember if I was feeling sick, but I guess I didn't feel like going to school because my mom stuck a thermometer in my mouth and went back to the kitchen while it took my temp. I got the bright idea to make sure I had fever by putting the thermometer down on my bedside table and pulling the gooseneck lamp down over it.

I guess I had a pretty high fever because it popped and the mercury came out and was rolling around on the table ~ anyway, that's the way I remember it. That was 1958 or 59.

The US banned it, but others still use it. Last time I saw it used was in the mid-90s when I was in the Philippines. We went to an amusement park which had some slides that if you fell on, you got some scrapes. I recall kids with scraped knees covered in it. Brought back the same memories that this thread is bringing back.

I remember getting mecury in high school physics and playing with it.

"Red medicine", my mom called it. Stung like an SOB - my brother & I would have crawled through glass for a mile rather than admit to a leeeetle boo-boo which would cause her to whip out that stuff.

Wasn't aware of the mercury issue - but yes, I can well believe in it's demonic properties. I cringe even today, 40 some years later, thinking of that stuff!

Which turned out to be a little toxic. (I didn't have acne; I have freakishly sensitive skin and this was the recommended wash.)

There is always Betadine http://www.amazon.com/Physician-Supplies-Betadine-Solution-Pint/dp/B000GCKD0O

You get the great dripping red color, the smell of iodine but no staining and no stinging (relatively no stinging depending on the type of cut).

I always keep some around in case of bad wounds that I think Neosporin might not completely disinfect or most importantly deeper burns which you don't want to slather too much petroleum based products on.

I also remember Bactine, which didn't hurt as much and was clear I think.

Oh, and the mercury.. we would pass the mercury from hand to hand -

I agree that it is amazing we are still alive