When I was but a wee elf, my Mom would put Mercurochrome on my cuts and scrapes. It was red, and stung a bit.
She always called it “Monkey Blood”. I figured it was just something she made up, until I came across [Link Removed]
So, who else’s mom put “Monkey Blood” on their cuts? Is this a regional thing? And how in the world did Mercurochrome get this name, anyway?
BTW, I grew up in Southeastern Louisiana.
My mom put monkey blood on my cuts. She was from the ARK-LA-TEX area. This would have been around 1970 or so.
Monkey’s blood is my grandmother’s thing. She grew up in TX and lived most of her live in TX and LA.
I think it was called “Merthiolate” or “Mercurochrome” a tincture of something or other, stung like hell and left quite a stain. Did contain mercury, I’m sure it and other “tissue poisons” aren’t used anymore. I always dreaded that stuff.
Merthiolate and Mercurochrome are two different, though similar, things. Both used Mercury to kill germs and both were bright red. But Merthiolate had an alcohol base and stung like hell, while Mercurochrome has a water base and didn’t sting at all. Neither was particularly a great antiseptic.
It’s similar to the difference between tincture of iodine and Isodine.
I’d never hear “monkey blood” before, though.
That’s what my great-grandmother called it, and we used it all the time. She grew up in Texas. Sounds like a regionalism.
There’s mercury in it? :eek:
In elementary school, anyone who skinned a hand or knee out on the playground would be sent to the nurse’s office to get some kind of yellow disinfectant sprayed on the wound. For no apparent reason, this was always called monkey blood. I grew up in Texas and heard the term for the first time around 1986.
“Monkey Blood” must be a regional term. I grew up in Florida, my boys grew up in Alabama, and lots of Merthiolate and Mercurochrome were used over the years. I’ve never heard the “Monkey Blood” term prior to this thread.
My brother (the clumsy one) was always getting painted up with BOTH, until it turned out he was allergic to mercurochrome. I don’t think I ever got dosed with mercury at all.
But that old fluoroscope in the basement… we had a ball with that! And the jar of liquid mercury in the basement, and all those Fresca™s! Mmmm, Monkey Blood!!!
Yep,
I grew up in the ARK-LA-TEX also and didn’t even realize that “monkey blood” wasn’t a universal term.
Hello,
I was raised in South Texas and we too called it “monkey blood” as well. Maybe it’s a “southern thing.” Our family doctor, who was born and raised in North Texas, never heard it called “monkey blood.”
I just read that Mercurochrome/Monkey Blood was banned by the FDA due to very trace amounts of mercury in the antiseptic. The FDA felt that even though its very trace amounts and shouldn’t pose a risk to users, they would prefer to err on the side of caution and ban it until someone tests the products ability to cause mercury poisoning. :dubious:
Whatever, it was a great product, it was used on me a LOT when I was a kiddle and never did I even remotely get mercury poisoning. However, all of the really great home remedies have been banned or mucked up by the FDA in some way that the really great DIY first aid supplies are made worthless. For example, Phisohex, boric acid solution, mustard plasters, or linament…good luck on finding any of those items very easily.
All that said to say…you’re not alone, others called it Monkey Blood too! :o)
Was there any particular reason to call it “monkey” blood or could it have been anything, like “zombie” blood, for example.
I am shocked, shocked I tells ya, that something with “mercuro–” at the beginning of its name would contain mercury. Furthermore, I don’t see how mercurochrome, a substance purchased at a drugstore or pharmacy, magically better than “modern” first-aid supplies which are, last I checked, substances that are purchased at a drugstore or pharmacy.
Moreover, there’s boric acid powder in my cabinet. I can get it at any big-box store. Is it different from boric acid solution?
I can find no information on Boric Acid being banned, and it seems to be available at hardware stores locally here in CA - are you sure?
I think you are confusing “banned for all uses” with “banned as a food additive”:
Also, people put all sorts of crap in their cuts to kill bacteria, much of which does at least as much damage to the human cells as the bacterial cells. A person is far better off washing a cut regularly with clean water, changing bandages, and perhaps a little alcohol instead of mercurochrome.
Reminds me of gentian violet, which stains your skin a really pretty purple color for quite some time. My grandma used to paint us grandkids with it anytime we got a boo-boo at her house. We didn’t call it anything animal-related, though.
Mercurochrome was a merbromin (C[sub]20[/sub]H[sub]8[/sub]Br[sub]2[/sub]HgNa[sub]2[/sub]O[sub]6[/sub]) aqueous solution while merthiolate was a thimerosal (C[sub]9[/sub]H[sub]9[/sub]HgNaO[sub]2[/sub]S) tincture. My parents always had mercurochrome because it didn’t sting. It seemed that everyone else (grandparents, aunts, etc.) always had the painful merthiolate.
BTW, Hg is mercury for the elementally uninformed.
Yep, same here!
I was raised in Fort Worth, but it was my FATHER who called it monkey blood, not my mother…and my father was raised in Massachusetts. However, he picked up a lot of regionalisms and learned to love Texas barbecue and chicken fried steak.
scoff
I got Bactine.
~VOW
Raised in New Mexico and I got plenty of monkey blood for my cuts.
Also, the link in the OP didn’t take me anywhere useful.