I thought I would put up a quick post about an amusing old package I saw at an antique store last summer:
Musterole, ha! A "modern counter-irritant" made with mustard, camphor, menthol and methyl-salicylate (oil of wintergreen). So powerful that you shouldn't cover it with a bandage or it might burn you. (That last part is serious, I guess.)
Well, come to find out this stuff is still on the market at Walmart and other fine retail establishments. The packaging has changed a bit:
Though you can see they kept the narrow-centered effect on the lettering.
Good to know you can still get it to treat your lumbago and chilblains.
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Living in the Past
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3 comments:
Gotta get to Walmart! I wonder if it might now be a tamer product, something like Vick’s VapoRub.
Musterole shows up in the Glass family’s medicine cabinet (Salinger). I looked up old ads when reading Salinger. One promises “Will Not Blister.”
Appears to be available only for online ordering here. Maybe it has greater store presence in other regions? Still has mustard seed oil.
Apparently those "counter-irritant" things really were caustic, and would leave blisters or burns if not taken off in time. The idea being that burning the outside of your chest would 'draw' infection out of the lungs somehow.
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