# Mercurochrome **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 23, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercurochrome/256578 "2004-07-23T21:06:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercurochrome/256578/1 "2004-07-23T21:06:50Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040723.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040723.html) > [@](#): > > For the foreseeable future those yearning for that delicious Mercurochrome sting will have to look somewhere else. As I recall it, it was merthiolate that stung. Mercurochrome was very mild. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercurochrome/256578/2 "2004-07-23T23:15:53Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040723.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040723.html) > As I recall it, it was merthiolate that stung. Mercurochrome was very mild. I dunno where you got your mercurochrome, but 'round here, the mercurochrome stung like a mo@#$\*%(#%er. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercurochrome/256578/3 "2004-07-23T23:40:31Z")
This & merthiolate both gave me a mild allergic reaction. Thus, when asked “Are you allergic to any drugs” I have always mentioned these. Used to be it was “Good to know”. Now it’s "Huh? 😕 ". Should I stop mentioning my reaction to these now- extinct medicines? ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2004, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercurochrome/256578/4 "2004-07-24T00:51:27Z")
Perhaps you are thinking of **Iodine** - ouch !!! Now that hurt. Mercurochrome does not sting. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2004, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercurochrome/256578/5 "2004-07-24T04:11:55Z")
I remember my grandmother using that stuff on us–it really did sting! Whether it was mercurochrome or merthiolate, I don’t know for certain–we always called it “monkey blood” anyway. I haven’t the faintest idea why! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2004, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercurochrome/256578/6 "2004-07-24T09:41:14Z")
Mercurochrome left a reddish stain. Merthiolate left a yellowish stain. We had both in our house. Whatever brother started the altercation got merthiolate. The rest got mercurochrome. ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2004, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercurochrome/256578/7 "2004-07-24T11:01:03Z")
From here: [http://www.mercurochrome.org/what.html](http://www.mercurochrome.org/what.html) > [@](#): > > The form of mercurochrome that is found in medicine cabinets is Mercurochrome Tincture which is nothing more than diluted merbromin. It is merbromin (usually only 2%) disolved in either alcohol, acetone, water or a combination of the afore mentioned. **If you remember mercurochrome as a stinging antiseptic, you’ll be interested to know that the alcohol and acetone tinctures of mercurochrome stings wounds whereas the water based mercurochrome tinctures do not.** ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2004, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercurochrome/256578/8 "2004-07-24T12:46:30Z")
[Ow!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=145128) ---
**Author:** ![Adoptamom\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Adoptamom\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adoptamom_II)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2004, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercurochrome/256578/9 "2004-07-24T13:02:12Z")
I’m with you Mayflower - we used to call it Monkey Blood, which added a sense of mystery to your wound …wondering how much monkey blood would be absorbed and if we’d start exibiting monkey like behavior 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2004, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercurochrome/256578/10 "2004-07-24T13:56:00Z")
Holy Crap!! I still have a bottle of the stuff in my medicine chest. (I’m still in my childhood home, while the folks moved away.) This stuff dates back to at least 1985. And, sure enough, as **Liberal** stated, it’s Osco’s Tincture Merthiolate that I was remembering. I’m sure we must have also had mercurochrome at some point, but the stuff I was thinking of is the merthiolate. (Although now it seems that mercurochrom does sting if it’s alcohol-based.) ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercurochrome/256578/11 "2004-07-25T04:06:34Z")
In the 1970’s,we had an awesome wound-cleansing liquid called “Zepherine”. It was painless unlike soapy water, iodine, etc. By the mid-1980’s, IIRC, it was gone! Where did it go and why? Is it for the same reasons as Mercurochrome? - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercurochrome/256578/12 "2004-07-27T01:01:18Z")
I’m not yet 30, but I’m familiar with mercurochrome. We had it in the first aid kit on a canoeing trip in Boy Scouts. Boys being boys, there were several opportunities to use it, too. I don’t remember it stinging at all, but I do remember that it changed color dramatically on contact with water (as I recall, from a yellowish-orange to a bright Rudolf-the-reindeer red).