Tincture of Merthiolate

Poststructural Pub
1

For you older players out there, who remembers tincture of merthiolate? Or tincture of iodine? For those of us of a certain age, it was the Mothers’ First Line of Defense against bacteria-laden cuts, scrapes, and other childhood mishaps where the skin got broken. Trouble was, the stuff burned like hot coals, or maybe melted glass!!! There were discussions amongst us youngsters about what went into the stuff. I think it was a combination of 200 proof rubbing alcohol, fuming nitric acid, concentrated habanero pepper juice, and hornet venom. :boggle: We tried to cover up anything less than a total amputation when we were wounded and went home, rather than let Mom put that stuff on a cut. Of course, all of our moms were probably trained by retired Army of the Potomac doctors, who thought pain was good for you. :laughing:

Anyway, I thought I’d ask around and see who experienced this stuff. Thank heavens for Bactine!

With best regards to all, and Happy New Year.

Steve Mack

2

The Drink always worked fine for me.

Slan,
D.

3

The very LAST time I had the stuff put on me I was 17 and -

My mare decided about the time I put my foot in the stirrup , that she really didn’t want to be ridden at that time, so she took off. Down the wire fence row we went, with me hanging on her side and both legs (wore shorts that day)getting a good ripping from the top row of the fence(barbed wire is the top row) OUCH!

When I got her stopped, I was not happy. After firm correction, I told her she would be ridden inspite of her mood. So, I rode her for probably thirty minutes or more to make my point. By then the blood running down my legs had attracted every fly for miles around. I got her cooled down and squared away and back at the house , here comes mom with alcohol AND mecurchrome to clean and disinfect the wounds.

After the dousing, I ran around the house three times, litterally, before the flames died down enough to endure.

The ending of this is that by the next night I had developed a huge allergic reaction to the stuff and was in the emergency room with legs that looked like something out of a horror movie. The Dr. told her to never put that stuff on me or anyone else again, and she never did.

4

I rest my case :wink:

Slan,
D.

5

I remember an old dried up stoppered-bottle of the stuff in the medicine cabinet. We used Bactine.

6

We had mecurchrome around the house, but the theory was that if it didn’t hurt, it wasn’t killing the germs, so merthiolate was the antiseptic of choice around our house. It came in a long, slim glass vial, encased in a cardboard sleeve with little cutouts, so that you could see when it was all gone.

It only came out one drop at a time. That also made it better than mecurchrome, which had a relatively wide-mouthed bottle with a glass applicator rod in it. It was wa-a-ay too easy to spill mecurchrome, and there was nothing in the world that would get it out of clothes, furniture, and carpets.

The cool thing about it was that it was pale orange, but had some kind of green highlights–like demon blood. I think Steve’s ingredient list is just about right.

7

My sister who is a wound specialist at one of the local hospitals assures me that nothing astringent should be used on a wound as it retards healing. She uses steralised water to flush wounds with great success - if there is any question of infection then antibiotics are used in conjunction with water-flushing.

8

I remember the sting!

My mom (a nurse) would also paint a little flower around the “boo-boo” to cheer us up, after she had doused the wound with the stuff! :party:

M

9

I have memories of my mother painting that orange stuff on my cuts and scrapes. I remember the glass rod applicator with the rounded end so that you could use it like a paint brush. I think that my mother, perhaps a repressed artist, used to get carried away. The orange color was really weird. What I don’t miss, however, is what my mother used as a remedy for coughing. When I was coughing at night, she would come into my room and make me swallow a gob of Vicks vapo-rub, which was supposed to be used topically. I didn’t die, and I probably stopped coughing because I didn’t want any more of that stuff.

10

I used to wonder about the cough syrup commercials when I was a kid.

It would show the medicine going in the mouth and down and coat the bronchial tubes. How in the world does is get into the bronchial tubes, for me it all seems to go down to the stomach, I guessed it wasn’t working right. I told my mom that the medicine didn’t work right, not like on TV, it went the wrong way.

11

You don’t know how really close I just came to spewing after reading this. :laughing:

12

We always pronounced it muhthiolade. Like Darwin, I was told that it was a good thing that it stung because that meant that germs were dying. I feel your pain, germs.

And remember that Serutan spelled backwards spells Natures.

13

Don’t recall Tincture of Iodine although I thiink I’ve had it administered - never even heard of the other stuff.
But here is my cautionary tale from New Years Eve.
I thought I’d treat the wife to a home-made Indian meal. We used to cook a lot of Indian, but sort of got out of the habit. She was out shopping and I had asked her to get some green chillies. She got a packet of three green chillies. Meanwhile I realised I’d run out of fresh coriander, and dashed down to the local Greengrocers to get some. I got about a quarter pound of coriander for 85p. I used three tablespoons full after it was chopped, and put the rest (about ten tablespoonsful) in a bag into the freezer. I used half of one chilli for the Gujerati-style carrots and peas. We had our meal. And I thought I’d better chop the other chillies and put them in the freezer for later, too. So I did.

And then I went for a pee.

You would think I’d know by now, but it has been a while. And this was worse than I ever remembered it. So I thought “Water doesn’t get rid of this stuff, but grease does. I’ll wash it off with some soap.”

WRONG!

It is a very long time indeed, if ever, that I have been in so much pain. One of the things I got for Xmas/Yule was a lump of jelly-soap for the shower. I was crying with pain by the time I got into the shower, and crying with pain for a while before I got rid of most of the unpleasant sensation.
Eventually it died down to merely the sensation of being equipped with a red-hot-poker. Painful, but bearable.

I think this has been the worst New Years Eve I can remember.

WEAR GLOVES TO CHOP CHILLIES!

(Or better still, get a female to chop them.)

14

:smiley: :laughing: :smiley: :laughing:


sorry…

15

Fortunately, or un-, the pain lasts for about six minutes no matter what you do. The capsaicin dissipates pretty quickly, but the nerves fire for six minutes.

Ever heard of Atomic Balm? It’s kind of like Ben Gay on steroids. Be equally careful putting it on a pulled groin. It doesn’t go away in just a few minutes, either; it lasts for an hour or two.

16

Oh yes. . .all of the above ‘cures’. Merthiolate, mercurochrome (same thing maybe?) and iodine.

My father wanted to stuff Vick’s up my nose, but I was quite serious about running away if he did, and he finally gave up.

I was prone to skin infections and had open wounds treated with ichthamol ointment too. I actually think that stuff worked. Can you even find it anymore? Gooey black stuff.

17

I remember this stuff, but didn’t actually have the “pleasure” of having it used on me (I tended to do more serious things that needed stitches).
But I would get car sick VERY easily as a kid. The local pharmacist made up something liquid for me to take, and the bottle of it would be in the glove box. My dad used to swear it was some type of opiate! It wasn’t paragoric (sp?) - but may have been based on it.

18

I definitely remember merthiolate, mercurochrome and iodine. I’m not sure which we used, I think it was iodine—I think my mom thought it was more powerful.

I only remember having it put on one time, although there must have been others or I wouldn’t have feared it so. The time I remember was when I was four years old and a little boy had bitten me quite viciously on the back. I was so instilled with the germ theory (my mother was a nurse) that I begged her to put iodine on the bite even though she didn’t think it was necessary for some reason–probably the bite was not as bad as I thought. I was convinced I would die otherwise—maybe I was thinking of rabies or something. My poor mother. I remember lying across her legs while she sat on the toilet putting it on with the little glass rod. I was screaming, of course, but if she said she’d put on enough I just screamed that it needed more to prevent infection. What a weird kid.

Yes, thank god for Bactine. I thought that stung a bit too though. What made me feel life had really improved was when that Johnson’s and Johnson’s first aid cream came out. I made my mom get some of that right away. It was such a relief to have that.


I found the following info—first two from Wikipedia, third from World Health Organization.

  1. Thimerosal (also spelled thiomersal) is a mercury-containing organic compound (organomercurial).

Thimerosal was developed and registered under the trade name Merthiolate in 1929 by the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly and marketed as an antibacterial and antifungal agent. It has been used as an additive to prevent bacterial contamination in vaccines and other compounds such as immune globulin preparations, skin test antigens, anti-venins, ophthalmic and nasal products, and tattoo inks.

The chemical formula for thimerosal is C9H9HgNaO2S. In the body it is metabolized to ethylmercury (C2H5Hg+) and thiosalicylate. Thimerosal causes susceptible bacteria to autolyze (break down their own cells with self-produced enzymes) via an unknown mechanism.


2. Mercurochrome (also known as merbromin) is a topical antiseptic. Its antiseptic qualities were discoverd by Johns Hopkins doctor Hugh Young in 1919. The chemical soon became popular among parents and doctors for everyday antiseptic uses, mostly in tincture form. The FDA banned its distribution in the United States in the 1990s over fears of mercury poisoning. It is readily available in most other countries.

Mercurochrome chemical formulaIt is also used as a chemical dye for its bright red color. In its pure state, it has the appearance of green crystals with melting point higher than 300 °C.

Chemically, mercurochrome is C20H8Br2HgNa2O6, name dibromohydroxymercurifluorescein.

  1. Iodine tincture

Iodine tincture contains approximately 2% iodine and 2.4% sodium iodide diluted in 50% ethanol. Iodine is bactericidal, sporicidal, cysticidal and virucidal. Gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria are almost equally affected. Its action persists for several hours although it gradually diminishes after

19

I see a bottle of the stuff (merthiolate) everyday in the bathroom where I work, sitting on top of the never-restocked first-aid kit. I wonder if its worth something…

I remember being thoroughly confused about iodine, merthiolate, mercurochrome as a kid, so I really appreciated the definitions above. Like Doug, I do remember the glass ball-tipped dispenser, which was always weird to begin with.

Yep, in those days, every fourth kid had a bright orangish or reddish spot on his knee, elbow or forehead. And boy, do I remember the sting…

Ah, the good ol’ days of indiscriminate chemical use. Hexol in the bathtub, mercurochrome on the skin, radioactive watch hands, foot x-rays, bleach and Pine-Sol everywhere, lead-based paint, lighter fluid in every house. It’s a miracle so many of us are still around…

20

Is there something dangerous about Pine-Sol? I like that stuff. :laughing:

I do remember those foot x-ray machines in shoe stores.