text: what ever happened to smelling salts?   back when my heart was a bit blacker we had "smelling salts" in the first aid cabinet at a place i used to work. it was a liquid chemical in a small glass tube wrapped in fiber. whenever they hired someone new i would grab one and start sniffing it (unbroken) and then ask the new guy if it smelled funny and crush the vial as i handed it to them. explosive reaction everytime! mean but funny.