I inherited a fear of germs from my mother, though I don’t have the disease as badly as she did. As a nurse my mother was predisposed to keep things sanitary, but she usually went a bit overboard, constantly spraying disinfectants when we were sick and insisting that we not share drinking glasses or eating implements (sick or well). The notion of taking a sip of someone else’s Slurpee was foreign to me, and I learned very early how to wash my hands properly with near-scalding water. I still use my elbows to open bathroom doors whenever possible.
We didn’t have hand sanitizers back then, but we did have products such as Phisohex, hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol, and Lysol, the all-purpose disinfectant still popular today. The images in this week’s column are all from a 1940 Lysol brochure extolling the many virtues of the product, which back then included several uses we might not be comfortable with today (Lysol combined with kerosene kills termites, Lysol-soaked gladiolus bulbs resist thrips). Click on any image for a larger version.
The fear of germs is called mysophobia, and it can manifest itself mildly, as in my case, or it can cause full-blown obsessive-compulsive disorders of the sort that has people washing their hands constantly and avoiding public interaction.
The wretched thing about germs, of course, is that you can’t see them. That makes us all the more fearful and puts them in the same category as supernatural evils like ghosts, the devil, and bad vibes. Even innocent babies and small children are susceptible to the ravages of evil germs.
Today I don’t think of Lysol as a product you actually put on wounds or use as a bodily disinfectant, but at least in 1940 the company advocated the product as an all-around remedy. Here a young woman sheds tears over her feminine problems, which we discover can be cured by a few drops of Lysol. And a small cut or scrape heals better after a direct dabbing with Lysol. The disinfectant also cures “cooties,” the brochure says (cooties being head lice).
Germs are everywhere, of course, but the most feared germs come from the bathroom, and that’s still a popular place for Lysol.
I buy Lysol in bulk at Costco so I can spray it liberally on various surfaces. I figure that it can’t hurt, and it reassures me. But I don’t use Lysol as a bathing aid for my pets.
While I may not be as big of a mysophobe as my mother, in the war on germs, I do love the smell of Lysol in the morning. It smells like… victory.
This article was last modified on May 15, 2023
This article was first published on September 23, 2011
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