Lotions, potions and liniments

[MoreAviation]

I was perusing some old photographs (actually very old) of MoreAviation when he was a mere 4 year old and noticed what looked like a strange rash on the young boy in the photograph and was apt to rush to the mirror to see whether his 50 something palimpsest still had said rash when it struck me that the red blotch in the old Kodak photo was neat Mercurochrome splashed liberally by my doting mother onto some childish scrape or cut and it struck me that one doesn't see that anymore (or at least this old palimpsest doesn't).

Whatever happened to Mercurochrome, Zam-Buk and all those other lotions, potions and liniments that eased us from our mother's tender clutches into the big wide world? What weird remedies from your neck of the woods did your mom insist in dousing you with?

[A Lutra Continua]

You can still get both mercurochrome and Zam-Buk. Merthiolate was the one I feared as a callow youth. To be honest, I knew what to expect when in the army so first application to exposed wounds didn't come as too much of a shock, as it did to a coddled few.

[500N]

The "powers that be" seemed to ban the sale of pure whatevers and push various commercial, branded solutions.

Can't remember the name of the liquid we put on blisters in the military but it was the same as A Lutra described !

Luckily I didn't suffer too many !


What about Deep heat, Bromide ?

[MoreAviation]

The "powers that be" seemed to ban the sale of pure whatevers and push various commercial, branded solutions.

Aagh, you are right! So I rushed off to find the symptoms of mercury poisoning occasioned by my mother...

Mercurochrome is a trade name of merbromin. The name is also commonly used for over-the-counter antiseptic solutions consisting of merbromin (typically at 2% concentration) dissolved in either ethyl alcohol (tincture) or water (aqueous).

Its antiseptic qualities were discovered by Hugh H. Young in 1918, while working at Johns Hopkins Hospital as a physician. The chemical soon became popular among parents and physicians for everyday antiseptic uses, and it was commonly used for minor injuries in the schoolyard.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moved it from the “generally recognized as safe” classification into the “untested” classification to effectively halt its distribution in the United States on October 19, 1998 over fears of potential mercury poisoning. Sales were halted in Germany in 2003, and in France in 2006. It is readily available in most other countries.

From Wikipedia

Symptoms include:

Symptoms of methylmercury poisoning may include impairment of peripheral vision; disturbances in sensations ("pins and needles" feelings); lack of coordination; impairment of speech, hearing, walking; and muscle weakness.

Strange, I suffer from all of those when I leave the pub on Friday night...!

[rgbrock1]

500N used Baby Oil for his tender poop shoot in the Army. Right, sir?

[500N]

500N used Baby Oil for his tender poop shoot in the Army. Right, sir?

I was told by a Ranger "it was better than soap"

[MoreAviation]

Nothing wrong with Johnson's baby oil that a pert pair of female ... (ahem, perhaps I should go and have a little lie down as all those mercury poisoning symptoms are returning)...

[GrumpyOldFart]

Symptoms include:


Symptoms of methylmercury poisoning may include impairment of peripheral vision; disturbances in sensations ("pins and needles" feelings); lack of coordination; impairment of speech, hearing, walking; and muscle weakness.


Strange, I suffer from all of those when I leave the pub on Friday night...!

So now the dashed brewers are putting mercury in the beer? The utter bastards.

[Fenland787]

From my childhood? - Scott's Emulsion, a hideous blend of emulsified fish offal with a taste rating of triple yuck!

To offset that however, the original 'Dr. Collis Brown's mixture* - a wonderful blend of all known opiates - taste (and side-effects) rating of quadruple great!

* recommended dose 2-4 drops in a glass of water, I still recall the day my uncle failed to read the dose correctly and took three teaspoons full to cure a 'gyppy tummy' - didn't get much sense out of him for about 24 hours.....

[Beaufort]

I can remember 'Fuller's Earth Cream.

[ian16th]

From my childhood? - Scott's Emulsion, a hideous blend of emulsified fish offal with a taste rating of triple yuck!

I used to like Scott's Emulsion!

[Flame Lily FX]

It's all 'muti' to me.

Nixoderm for the stubborn chorb. Fissan's Baby Paste applied liberally to noses and lips to prevent sunburn.

[om15]

The RN favoured "crab fat" which was a blue unction they applied to themselves following unfortunate excursions away from their boats.

[Rossian]

The ORIGINAL Dr Collis Brown's chlorodyne had in its little box a sheet of rice paper with recommendations as to its efficacy from characters such as "Lt Col Scrungefuttock-ffotherington-smythe" of the Shropshire light horse dosing his troops with it on the north-west frontier after a regiment wide attack of the lurgy (in the dosage mentioned above) and then they were "ready to face the fuzzy-wuzzys again with steadfastness" . Lots of testimonials like that.
I believe that it was because in the '70s druggies were buying it by the boxful and extracting the opium to ingest that the formulation was changed. Magic stuff it was, much better than kaolin and morph.

The Ancient Mariner

[MoreAviation]

It's all 'muti' to me.

Nixoderm for the stubborn chorb. Fissan's Baby Paste applied liberally to noses and lips to prevent sunburn.

Foul smelling Mytolac for the worst of teenage pustular outbreaks. An ingenious way of breaking a teenager's spirit. First acne and then a pink staining potion that smelled like a leper's jockstrap. Girls ran faster than Hussein Bolt when one of the Mytolacee came within a mile of them.

[rgbrock1]

A hair lotion called 'School'. Evil, foul-smelling ***** which my mother used to douse on my head. Afterwards ones' hair was able to stay straight even in a CAT 5 hurricane.
Looked like cum in a bottle to be honest. Some really sick *****.

[MoreAviation]

A hair lotion called 'School'. Evil, foul-smelling *sh*t* which my mother used to douse on my head. Afterwards ones' hair was able to stay straight even in a CAT 5 hurricane.
Looked like cum in a bottle to be honest. Some really sick *sh*t*.

You could have gone the British way and used Brylcream which is elephant cum...

[A Lutra Continua]

Brylcreem. Vile stuff. Got sent off to Sunday school slathered in the mess. Probably explains why I've never tolerated my hair longer than a couple of mm since then (except for a mong interlude at school and a stint in the Antarctic where I couldn't be bothered to cut or brush the fur).

[rgbrock1]

Brylcreem. Vile stuff. Got sent off to Sunday school slathered in the mess.

Aha. The truth comes out. This explains a lot, A Lutra. Would you like to borrow my pink tutu, you big softie?

[rgbrock1]

Have we all forgotten this foul-stinking crap?